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Copyright, 1891 
By THE BANCROFT COMPANY 

All Rights Reserved 



TMP92-008834 



PREFACE. 

In spite of protests from its Author, I undertake the 
task of placing this Dramatic Work before the public 
without resorting to those multitudinous accessories which 
could be supplied by the theatrical profession. And 
though the Author has beseeched me to desist from the 
attempt, my strong conceit has overpowered his feeble 
modesty. For some time past his frequent contemplation 
has been the destruction of this Drama, a conception 
morbid from its birth. But such destruction I contend 
would be no less than child-murder. 

" Still," he would say, when argued with from such a 
view, '" the child is so much morbidly deformed, that 
when it mingles with the world 'twill be the jest of 
some, the scorn of others, and the stern repugnance of 
the world at large." 

" 'Tis not your fault, though, that the child is so 
deformed," I would reply, "For was it not born so 
through the laws of Nature over which you could hold 
no control ? " 

" Yes," he would then assent, " but there are few who 
would admit that to be true, though I should picture 

5 



them the perfect form I fancied that the brat would have. 

But that is not a whole consideration of the trouble; for 

aside from its morbid deformity, it is a bastard child." 

" A satire on its mother is it not? " 

* * * * 

And by such arguments I have induced him to allow 
the introduction of my rhymes into the matter of his 
Drama. 

And now, the Author and Myself apologizing for each 
other's weaknesses, it is submitted to the test which is not 
feared, although predicted — the jests of some, the scorn 
of others, and the stern repugnance of the world at large. 

—JULIUS. 



REPROACH FULLY DEDICATED 
TO 

"MY FOSTER MOTHER" 

[SAN FRANCISCO] 

Blush, strumpet " Queen of the Pacific Slope" 
For while strumpets can blush there still is hope. 

Behind black Tamalpias sank the sun, 

And San Francisco's sky was crimson dun. 

Across the Bay, from Alameda's shore, 

The clouds seemed like a sea of muddy gore. 

One thousand female souls sank into Hell, 

Without the murmur of a funeral knell. 

" Nob Hill's" inhabitants could see their plight, — 

But closed their eyes to hide the awful sight: 

For Hell's "Dupont Street" touches "Nob Hill's" side; 

And yet a gulf between them lies, as wide 

As that which lay 'tween Lazarus and Dives ; 

But different, for here the rich man thrives. 

These thousand female souls wantoned in Hell : 

Five thousand men and youths beside them fell ; 

And ere the shrill-voiced bird announced the morn, 

None know how many souls in Hell were born. 

! San Francisco, blush, if blush you can! 

For there is hope while still there is a man, 



Who feels he has an interest in your rule 

And blushes: — be he not a self-made fool. 

Through what power do these women grow so lewd. 

That they will sell to men their souls for food ? 

Or is it lack of power ? Ah, there 's the thought ! 

Had they the power, how many would have caught 

The hand which left her in this foul quick-mire! 

But when she fell, her lover — love's satire! 

We know the rest — she plunged into despair, 

Yet lived: — would life had ended there! 

Her lover, — let us use the satire still, — 

Continued in the ball-room ; there to fill 

Another's virgin breast with — what was it? 

In her chaste thoughts the lovely maid would sit, 

And wonder — well, again we know the rest: 

Both called themselves " in love," — neither digressed 

From what the purest novels of the day 

Picture as love ; the best theatres would play 

Upon the rising passions of the lovers — 

— And they are married — how much that word covers! 

What seek our lovers when, with passions high, 
They court each other for the marriage tie? 
Ah, many a parent, with the passion past, 
Has when too late, this simple question asked. 
Why hide the misery of such lives away? 
That there are many, none can well gain-say: 
But lovers, married, would not lead such lives, 
If schooled in love, wherein all pleasure thrives, 
By casting from the novel and the stage, 
For a true love, the false love of our age. 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 



A DRAMATIC POEM 



Life's theater in darkness : from the stage : 

" Do you think Walton loves your mother more 
Than when he married her ten years ago ? " 
" Yes ; for he then had no true love for her." 
" What do you call the strong attraction which 
Was thought to be true love, but which was not ? " 
" A simple fascination which the charms 
Of social life excited ; nothing more. 
This fascination withered, and true love 
Was not formed till the fascination died." 
u It's time Society ceased to regard 
An amorous fascination as true love ! " 

" Dear Roger, we know what it is, I'm sure." 
" Yes Gladys, my sweet wife ! Shall we retire ? " 

" Yes : let us go to sleep and dream — " 
" That your dear mother, Margaret Kent, will live 
The errors of her life again ! " 
# * %. * ^ 

The suriligld of twelve backward yea?-s 

Bursts through the darkness, and then fades away. 

Strange noises fill Imaginations ears, 



10 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

And Fancy s eyes are filled, while tempered day 
Reveals the (esthetic home of Margaret Kent. 
Her daughter, Gladys — eight years old — is bent 

With painful grace above a manuscript. 
Her emptied pen into the ink is dipped, 

When Roger Charlton enters — there 'tis left. 

" Oh, Mr. Charlton, don't tell anyone ! " 

She tries to hide her manuscript, 

And from her lips a kiss is sipped: — 
" Don't you tell anyone ! " 

The lips raised by the kiss then pout, — 
" Now you've seen everything ! " 

He fails to make her meaning out: — 

" I've seen your love ; that might be everything to me." 
" Oh, but you saw the letter I was writing, didn't you ? " 

She has assumed a frightened air, 

And Charlton gently strokes her hair: — 
" Gladys, if you were older, I should say, your manner 

gives yourself away ! Love-letter ! — Hey ? " 
" Ye-es." 

Reluctantly she gives it him : 
He with expectancy is grim : — 
u Should I find it for some one else, and some one else 

find it for me, we'd each put out the other's eyes ; 

'fore either one could see if for him or the other you 

intended it to be." 
In confidence she lifts her face : — 

" I wanted you to have it, but — not yet." 

And lie removes each wrinkle's trace: 
" Then you intended it for me ! Sweetheart, won't we 
make love romantic ? Truly this (kisses her). We 
soil love's romance every time we kiss! — but can't 
you let me have the letter now ? " 
W-tth fearful sympathy she speaks : — 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS H 

" Oh, I've not written it to you ! " 

And he exaggerates Love's freaks : — 

11 Horrors! My heart will burst with jealousy. You said 
it was for me to see— I thought of course it was for 
me! What! read it now ? Well, hardly. We will 
have no friendly rivalry." 

He takes his cloak and starts to go, 
But Gladys face beseeches, " No! " 
" Do wait a moment ! I want you to help me send it, 
please." 

'Tis sport for him ; but pain for her :— 

" I help you send it to another ? You're a heartless 
sweet ! Then may I ask of you, ' Whom is it written 
to ? "' 

Deep in her breast convulsions stir : — 

" To my - papa." 

Charlton, frowning, drops his cloak : 

" Gladys, what do you know about your father, please? " 
And she replies in tones which choke : — 

" Only what dear mamma sobs in the night." 

" Tut ! tut ! " 

" Last night I woke up in the dark, and poor mamma 
was praying here. She didn't seem to know her 
voice and everything was very strange. It seemed so 
awful, too, when all was still. I couldn't speak a 
single word, and so I crept from bed and came and 
kissed her cheek. She didn't even notice me, but 
cried so hard that finally she went to sleep and left 
me standing there beside her in the dark till morning 
came. I never, never, can forget that night. So I 
have written him to come. Please read my letter ! 
Here it is." 



12 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Charlton, ivith an effort, yawns, 
While this truth upon him datvns : — 

" My scheme is rotten if it does not hatch to-night ! " 
" It isn't very long because I can't write very well." 
{His eyes then try to follow where she moves her finger through the air.) 

" I told just how I dreamed of him, of what he looked 
like, and of what he was, and how I longed for him, 
and how I loved him as my dear papa. And then I 
told how lonely mamma was, and how she called for 
him at night, and told how happy we would be if he 
would come to us. I said that I thought / was 
worth his coming home to see ; and wondered why 
he didn't come . You see, I've been explaining as 
you read, so if you found a word you couldn't read, 
you would know what it was from hearing me tell 
you. I guess that he can read it, though." 

He asks her — staring vacantly at space, — 

" Do you know where to send it ? " 
And she replies, aioed by his solemn face, — 

" Yes, it's written on an envelope — the place mamma did 
used to send her letters. But a day or two ago I 
heard her say she hasn't written him for two years 
now. But I don't find it on the table — here ! it's 
fallen on the floor. Oh, Mr. Charlton, now what have 
you done ? " 

" I've spilled the ink, and it is streaked along your dress." 

:i And now mamma will ask how it was done, and I will 
have to tell her every single thing, when it was to 
have been my secret ! Oh, what shall I do ? " 

" Just tell her how I spilled the ink, directing a letter to 
a friend of mine." 

u Wouldn't that be a lie?" 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 13 

At his stern answer Gladys' features seemed to freeze. 

" Yes, it would be a lie, for Robert Kent is not a friend 
of mine ! Have you another apron just like this ? " 

" Yes, I have three of them." 

11 Then give me this, and I will have another made so 
near like it no one can tell the difference. It's not 
stained through on to your dress, and not a drop 
went on the carpet. Hurry, darling, get your apron 
off, and I'll address the letter while your gone." 
( Gladys quickly leaves the room.) "Now let me see 
if I can streak another drop of ink ! (writes) ' Robert 

Kent, care of , Rio Janeiro, South America.' 

( With the letter at arm's length.) Through you I will 
give God the means to thwart my schemes. (Gladys 
enters, having cast the Holland apron from her dress.) 
You've shed your chrysalis as it were ! Now sign 
your name, and I will mail the letter for you, dear. 
But let me take the apron, here." 

With painf id features Gladys signs ; 
And Charlton asks, for his designs, — 

" Let's see ! How shall I carry this ? " 

Gladys, every nerve confused, 

Grows excited : 
" Someone is coming, Mr. Charlton ! Quick ! " 
" Give me the letter and excuse me, please ! " 

He steps into a corner of the room. 

A woman is seen standing at the door : 

" Gladys, you dear, delicious, little sweet ! Is mamma 
in? — No salutation? well that is a cut ! — Still silent? 
Is your mamma in ? " 

11 N-n-n-no ma'am ; she's not at home." 



14 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" That's what we call ' a chestnut ' in society. No answer ? 
Well ! have I offended her ? — I'll ask you plainly, 
then, may I come in? — Mrs. Townsend coldly treated 
at the door of Margaret Kent ! I shall at least demand 
an explanation, hence I must come in. (Enters.) 
Oh, Roger Charlton ! are you here ? " 
He glances at himself from neck to foot : — 

" Yes, and (his hand to Mrs. Toionsend's mouth is put) 
to-day I'll let them know that Robert Kent will die 
by my own hand if Margaret refuses to become 
divorced." 

She points at Gladys in alarm : — 

11 Is it suspected I am in with you ? " 

For both have planned to do Kent harm: — 
k ' Oh no, but don't be friendly, or you will be off your 
guard." 
Miss Longstaffe enters, — Margaret's chaperon, 

Her presence Mrs. T assumes unknoxvn : 

" Only a thief without intelligence would do what you 
have evidently tried to do." 
And Mrs. Townsend looks at Charlton, 
Who attempts to hide the apron : 
Points at Gladys, who is nervous : 
" I need no explanation to surmise that you have stolen 
something from this child." 
Stern Miss Longstaffe remarks, quite unsuspectingly : — 
" A strong imagination is guided by its own propensities, 
but mine can't follow yours. Explain." 
Mrs. Totcnsend sees ivhat he has hid: — 

" Explain^ or you will be arrested in the act." 
He wishes himself of the xcoman rid : — 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 15 

" Explain, and you will be arrested in the tongue! " 

Shreivd Mrs. Townsend wants no explanations, 
But merely to. show no friendly relations: 

" Gladys, will you tell what this thief has taken from 

you ? " 
" I'll tell what Mr. Charlton has ! » 
" Excuse me, Gladys, but it really is none of Mrs. Town- 

send's business ; and Mrs. Townsend, I believe that 

Gladys will desire my friendship quite as long as 

yours." 

She gives to him a smile behind the back 

Of Miss Longstaffe, ivho beckons him to her. 

Grave Miss Longstaffe and Charlton leave the room. 

" Well, well, my little dear, I didn't mean to hurt your 
feelings so ! Come, make a confidante of me. What 
is it all about?" 

" I wrote a letter to my lost papa, and Mr. Charlton said 
that he would mail it for me when he went." 

" Come, let me see the letter, please." 

" Why ! he has taken it away." 

" Oh, then the letter's safe." 

And Mrs. Townsend thinks she will depart. 

— Poor Gladys moans, with hand upon her heart, — 

" I feel as if a thunder-storm was coming up inside 

of me ! " 

Miss Longstaffe, seeming satisfied, 
Returns with Charlton at her side. 

" 1 s'pose you've heard the latest social news from our 
reporter, — Mrs. Townsend ? It's in the daily paper, 
here, of yesterday." 

He speaks in anger, strolling towards the fire. 

Miss Longstaffe reads a book to cool his ire. 



16 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Well, she has written such an article, that from its 
import Margaret Kent and I are desperately in love, 
and only one conclusion can its readers reach ; that 
Margaret will have a scandal or a quick divorce from 
Robert Kent should he return from South America. 
Our social Modesty has grown so bold, that Curiosity 
now goes stark naked through our drawing-rooms in 
search of wanton gossip : for everybody knows that 
Mrs. Townsend is reporter on this paper for the social 
news, and yet she is received in good society. But 
that which stirs the furies of my mental elements, is 
that this article was an attempt on Mrs. Townsend's 
part to show to Mrs. Kent the dangerous folly of thus 
living a deserted wife. I will admit that she's wise 
in her conclusion, but think she lacks the wit to use 
her wisdom, for Margaret does not agree with her, and 
steady opposition merely makes each stronger in her 
own. I think if all her friends would say to Mar- 
garet Kent : ' swear that you love your husband, 
though you sleep to dream of his unfaithfulness, with 
your head pillowed on his foul disgrace : swear that 
you love your husband, though each morning you 
must bathe in memories slimy with his vile, disgusting 
filth : swear by your then clean honesty that dearer 
than your God you prize him as a fitting subject in 
your morning prayer of thanks for food provided by 
your own sweet toil, and salted with the sweat of 
your pure brow ; and give him glowing gratitude 
for turning into wine the sparkling water of his 
stinking vomit : your sacred duty lies in doing this. 
And more : when for a kiss he sweetly spits into 
your face tobacco juice — ' " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 17 

Miss Longstaffe shuts her book with a report : — 

" I beg you, Mr. Charlton, stop ! the stench already 's 

dense enough." 
Young Charlton answers her, with accent* short : — 
" Miss Longstaffe, I love Margaret, but feel just like a 

cat, whom that dog, Robert Kent, has driven up a 

friendly pole, to which I cling ! " 

Miss Longstaffe starts to read her book again : — 

" You are a poled-cat, then." 

And Charlton's tone begins another strain : — 

" I beg your pardon if I have become offensive, Miss 
Longstaffe." 

Miss Longstaffe sternly motions Gladys out; 
And Gladys goes the longest way about. 

" Then think of this : the more offensiveness you throw on 
him, the more offensive you yourself become." 

Charlton bows his head; then raises it. 

— His voice seems rising J rom his stomach's pit : — 

"I wish to be despised by you. Now listen: Margaret 
still clings to Robert Kent by what she calls a love 
of honor, not a love for him, and she bids fair to 
sacrifice her entire life to that one selfish sentiment. 
I have resolved it shall no longer be. She thinks 
that only death should cancel obligations of the 
marriage vows, and if to-day she still persists in 
playing martyr to that thought, I have resolved to 
take the death of Robert Kent upon my soul, but 
that once done, I never more can be the lover I have 
been. I do not wish that Margaret should ever know 
by whose hand she was freed, and hence I shall 
evade the law if possible, and go away from her when 
it is done. She shall have satisfactory proof that 
Robert Kent is dead, but never need know how he 
met his fate." 



18 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Miss Longstaffe has arisen to her feet, 
And forced young Charlton down into a seat: — 
" Margaret will never be divorced from Robert Kent, — 
but you — you must not do this thing." 
Gladys enters, staring at her aunt: — 

" Mamma is waiting in the hall, will you please go an 
errand with her ? It won't take you very long." 
And Charlton glances back, with look askant: — 

" I'd follow her into the grave to be with her." 

And leaves the room: — 

" What is a pole-cat, auntie, dear ? Is Mr. Charlton 
one ? " — Is asked of Miss Longstaffe. 
Nothing yet made the woman deign to laugh: — 

" Sometimes he is. Gladys, prepare the tea. I think 
that Mrs. Townsend will be in again to see your 
mother soon." 

With which she leaves her, — A self-made old maid. 
Gladys is note at ease, — of none afraid: — 

" I wonder what a pole-cat is ! — a pole-cat ! It may be 
Mrs. Townsend will know why he is a pole-cat ! The 
trouble is she talks so much herself, that I can't get 
a chance to say a word. — But I know how I'll do 
it ! — When she asks, ' Is mamma in ?' I'll answer 
her, ' No ma'am, she's out with Mr. Charlton ! ' Then, 
before she has a chance to speak a word, I'll say, 
1 Miss Longstaffe says he is a pole-cat. What is a 
pole-cat ?' That's just the way we'll do ! Now 
she'll come in the door right here, — (opens door) 
And I will say, 'Why Mrs. Townsend! won't you 
take a chair ?' Of course she'll say the thing she 
always does, ' Oh thanks, you dear, delicious, little 
sweet ! Is mamma in ?', — and I will say, ' No ma'am, 
she's out with Mr. Charlton, Miss Longstaffe says 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 19 

he is a pole-cat. What is a pole-eat?' That's per- 
fect. Now again: 'Why Mrs. Townsend ! won't you 
take a chair? " Oh thanks, you dear, delicious, little 
sweet ! Is mamma in?' — ' No ma'am, she's out with 
Mr. Charlton. Miss Longstaffe says he is a pole-cat. 
What is a pole-cat?' — And now if she would come I 
could remember everything. (Sits down.) Oh, Mrs. 
Townsend, Mrs. Townsend, I do, do wish you'd 
come." 

Her ivish is granted speedily, 
For Mrs. Townsend enters : 

" You dear, delicious, little sweet ! then you do love to 
have me come ; and you've been waiting for me and 
(taking Gladys in her lap she sits down in Gladys' chair) 
did you get angry with me 'cause I didn't come right 
back ? Here dearest give me one big kiss ! " 

Gladys, bewildered with swprise, 
Recalls her cue and, tries to rise : 

" Why, why Mrs. Townsend ! won't you take a chair ? " 

" What, darling ! Have I taken yours ? Well, you'll 
forgive me, won't you, dear? You are receiving callers 
all alone, and so of course must keep your dignity. 
You are too irresi stable ! " 

k ' (I wish you'd ask, 'Is mamma in ? ' ) " 

" And may I stay awhile ? " 

u Yes. Uncle Olney Kent comes in on Tuesday after- 
noons, and you're a little late, but I don't think he'll 
mind. Miss Longstaffe says — " 

" You say that Olney Kent comes in on Tuesday after- 
noons ! Is he the poet, known as ' Mr. Bell ? " 

" Yes ma'am. Miss Longstaffe says — " 

" Then I will learn to-day if he repents his treatment of 



20 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

me yet ! I dare say that your pretty mamma is 
beseiged with gentlemen ? " 
" Beseiged?" 

" I mean that many gentlemen come here to sec her." 
" Yes, there do. Miss Longstaffe says — " 
" Tell me about them dear, who are they all ? " 
" Oh, there are many of them and I don't remember all 
the names. There's Uncle Olney Kent and Colonel 
Weir and Mr. Charlton, Tom Updegraeffe and George 
— Oh, I forget who they all are." 
" And so your mamma's in with all of these fine gentle- 
men ? " 
" No ma'am, she's out with Mr. Charlton. She says he 
is a pole-cat — " 

Gladys, hiving got this far, 
Forgets what she was after 
And Mrs. Toivnsend passes on 
With a merry, rippling laughter: — 

" What ! what ! she's fallen out with Charlton ? She 
says he is a pole-cat ? How she hates him then ! He 
has told her his intentions regarding Robert Kent. 
Well, I'll take care that no suspicions fall on me." 

" They're coming now." 

" What ! They're together yet ? " 

A moment's pause — and Margaret enter*, smiling 
On Charlton, whom she seemed to be reviling:— 
" Don't 3 r ou know Mr. Charlton, Lilly ? I thought you 
were acquainted." 
Margaret asks, and Mrs. Townsend bows 
To Charlton while her face no smile allows : 
" I never yet have had the honor of an intimate acquaint- 
ance. But I've heard much of him ; for let me warn 
you tha h , your little Gladys, here, is something of a 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 21 

spy between yourself and your adorers. She just 
now left with me the burden of a secret that concerns 
you both." 
Charlton, disgusted with her bold deceit 
In 'playing they are strangers, speaks : — 

" You say the secret is a burden ! Can't we help you bear 
it then ? give us some clue. What is it like ? " 

" Gladys compared the substance of it to a- a skunk." 

" No wonder that you quickly tire of such a burden and 
wish to shift it onto us." 

" You don't believe in bearing other's burdens, then ? " 
Margaret, disgusted until them both, 
Withdraws ; and Charlton grows more icroth : 

u Well that depends. We have before us an example in 

a woman burdened with a too vile to name ! 

Good common sense would say to merely drop the 
thing, as foolishness to longer carry it. What say 
you, Margaret ? Oh ! " 

u Ah, Charlton, what a wit you have ! Of course you 
now refer to Margaret being burdened with her hus- 
band, and I agree with you, he is a , and 

Margaret is really a fool to carry such a burden as he 
is." 

Gladys speaks : the clouding atmosphere 
Announces that her thunderstorm, is near : 
" I wish you'd go ! " 

And Charlton, following the lightning dart, 
Thunders — to quail the woman s heart : 

u Not one word more. Remember that you are her 
guest and she her mistress, though she be his wife ; 
and as her mistress, she should guide herself in being 
what his wife should be, her husband's honored 
mistress, and she just said to me that not until her 
honor leaves, will she leave Robert Kent." 



22 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

The clouds seem parted with sunlight, 
As Margaret illumes the scene :— 
" My honored duty is to honor him by still acknowledging 
' I am his wife.' " 

Another flash from Gladys light* a cloud: 
" Oh, Mrs. Townsend, I do- do wish you'd go ! " 

Again the storm hangs over like a shroud : 
" I beg your pardon, but I thought you didn't care for 
him, since he's deserted you for these six years." 
Gladyi stern face suddenly grows milder ; 
And as she leaves the room each step grows wilder:— 
'* (Oh, I know how to make her go ! ) " 
Margaret's face seems made of alabaster, 
As she replies : — 
'• I do not care for him, but he is still alive — is my child's 
father, and as the father of my child, I shall acknowl- 
edge him to be my husband, for the child is witness 
of a love that only death should violate. Father and 
mother should be man and wife while both are on 
this earth." 
But Mrs. Townsend ivill not be subdued: — 
" And you consider that the law which grants them a 
divorce should be repealed ? " 

Margaret seems with a Divinity imbued: — 

" The law should have the power to separate them, but 
it should not give the right to marry while the other 
lives." 

Charlton speaks as a philosopher: — 
" I think the law should have the power to separate them, 
and that to the guilty one it should not give the right 
to marry for the second time, but to the one who has 
not sinned, re-marriage is a question in which con- 
science should decide." 

And she replies: 



THE TRAGEDY OP ERRORS 28 

" Then I'm decided that his death or mine alone can 
break our marriage chains." 

Grim Charlton shut his Jews so tight they crack, 
But Mrs. Townsend smiles behind his bad : 

" You're sure it is not pride which makes you shrink from 
a divorce ? " 

" It is not pride ; for pride would spurn the life which 
I now lead. How could I be humiliated more than 
by the fact that Robert Kent is my acknowledged 
husband ? It is a simple love of honor and respect 
which I owe to myself for having been, and being, 
what I am to him : a power which has changed and 
will change his life to something better than it would 
have been had he not known the love of Margaret 
Kent," 

Mrs. Townsend gives his back another smile, 
And adds, — continuing to beguile : — 

11 You search for honor in humiliation." 

But Charlton whispers, as the light words pass:— 

" (You're balking my scheme now ; you treacherous ass!) 
We need not argue more. As Margaret believes that 
only death should stain the sacred purity of marriage 
vows, the pure humiliation of her martyrdom to that 
belief reflects her spotless honor." 

The shrewd woman fears future questions whether 
She and Charlton ever schemed together: — 

" It's strange that you should talk like this, when 
evidently you would gladly take her for your wife if 
she was free." 

Margaret looks as, — with a bound — 
A stag might look back at a hound : — 

" Do not again insult the love of Roger Charlton and 
myself ! " 



24 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Gladys enters, leading Miss Longstaffe; 
And Mrs. Townsend, turning at the sound, 
Attempts to lick her hand— as might a hound: — 

" A very pleasant evening Miss Longstaffe ! " 

Miss Longstaffe, taking with a sweeping glance 
The situation, sees at once her chance : — 

" I hardly think you think so. Mr. Charlton, will you 
sing for us ? Choose any of your songs : it doesn't 
matter which." 

She takes her instrument — a violin — 
And Margaret the piano: — they begin: — 

" Suppose I give you one entitled ' The Untold Secret of 
a Gossip-Monger ? ' " 

Again disgusted, Margaret leaves the room. 
The evening shadows darken to a gloom. 
" I don't know it. Please sing, ' I stood on the Bridge 

at Midnight, while ' "— 
" I'll sing 1 1 Stood on Ceremony, while she stood on toe, 
for I was too polite to say, I wish that you would go.' " 

He looks at Mrs. Townsend with a glare. 

She lightly laughs; but meets him with a stare: — 
" I think it time that I am moving on. Good afternoon! " 
" Good-night! " 

And Mrs. Townsend leaves the room. 

" I must say, Mr. Charlton, that I think your hint was 
rather coarse." 

u When she was coarse, why should it have been other- 
wise?" 

" If left with me it would have been — " 

" Refined upon your violin, till it became invisible! " 

Margaret enters, with cm injured air, 
Expecting to see Mrs. Townsend there. 
'•' She raises in me all the furies of a female mind. She 
asks for facts which fret me, and gives those truths 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 25 

which gall me. She feels herself above me, but one 
can see the stilts on which she walks, for she is a 
reporter in disguise, and makes her cash in specula- 
tive gossip, while I make mine in speculative poetry. 
But after all, it is a question which the world desires 
the most. I half believe that if we get to heaven, 
she will be in more demand than I." 
Margaret settles in the sofas furs, 
And Gladys comes and lays a hand in hers: — 

u And do you think I will be wanted there, mamma? " 

" Yes, darling, for the guardian of my conscience. I can 
hold my temper if I merely look at you. Yet it's 
my jealousy that is excited: for her occupation 
carries her into society, while I must sit alone here 
evening after evening to compose my fifteen dollar 
sonnets." 
Charlton comes and sits down by her side, 
And loving Gladys hugs him like a bride: — 

" A sonnet ought to bring you fifty dollars, Margaret ! " 

" I wish you were an editor, for never did we need the 
money more than now. Our European trip with you 
had nearly ruined us, and fitting up these rooms has 
quite completed it. Miss Longstaffe's pictures ought 
to sell. She now has two or three at Bernhart's 
which really should take the eye of connoisseurs." 

" At Bernhart's ! Ah ! Why not display them at ' The 
Fair ? ' They might ' take ' well." 

" I'd like to see them take a farewell : we need the money 
now." 

" I think I'll take my farewell, with hearty wishes for 
their wellfare. I'd like to be excused from tea. By 
Time's immortal age ! it's getting late. Come, I'll 
be off ! " 



26 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Well, come in often." 

'* Can I come oftener when I come oftenest now ? " 

" Cannot the best be bettered ? " 

" The best bread can be buttered ? " 

" But see if you cannot be better bred, and not resist my 

hospitality. Good-night ! " 
" Good-night your Wittiness ! Here Gladys, one last 
kiss!" 

Miss Longstaffe has been 'plunged in painful thought, 

A state which Charlton's threat toward Kent had wrought; — 

She rises in a half -uncertain way, 

As if not yet decided what to say : — 

" Mr. Charlton ! — " 

" Ye-es?" 

" Well, never mind. Good -night ! " 
Charlton gives one lingering look around, 
Then sadly bends his sight toward the ground : — 
" Good-night." 
Gladys notes the sadness of his eye, 
And follows him when he has passed her by. 
When both have gone Miss Longstaffe' s voice begins 
As though her every nerve was pricked with pins: — 
" I dislike them all, and Charlton in particular, who now 
willbuy my pictures, and on whose charity we'll live 
for months to come. How could you give that hint? " 
" 'Twas easier to give that single hint than write a poem 
full of them, and probably more lucrative. We're 
suffering from poverty, he is immensely rich, and he 
enjoys the giving more than we do the receiving it. 
Nor is it charity ; because we give the pictures, which 
are fully worth all we receive for them. We'll never 
take a penny which we do not earn." 
" But when you gave that hint, where was your pride?" 
" Invested in the future lucrative returns." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 27 

" Your pride should be invested in yourself." 

" My head's not thick enough to keep it in. All my 
emotions, thoughts, and sentiments escape in spite 
of me." 

" But you should check them, Margaret." 

" How? Check them ay phrenologists would do, by 
labeling every faculty, and learning in explicit terms 
its use, its quantity and quality, with recipes for 
mixing faculties in order to make money, friends, 
honor, love, or anything desired ? I hate such 
method in one's madness. Give me Nature's orderly 



confusion!' 



" And do you think it always ends in harmony?" 
Some one is softly tapping at the door. 
Miss Longstaffe quickly rises, but before 

She opens, /raits for Margaret's reply; 

And Margaret answers, — with a weary sigh: — 

" Let my death answer you." 

A fine old man, with nearly snow-white hair, 
Has entered. Miss Longstaffe has gone. 

" Oh, Uncle Olney ! I had feared that you would not 

come in this afternoon." 
" I came not in, yet I am in. 'Canst fathom that?' " 
" I cannot with my senses. No." 
*' Coming to your door awhile ago, I heard so many 

voices that I crept away; but found I couldn't bear 

the disappointment of not seeing you, and so have 

come again. Are you alone?" 
" I think so. All the company and Miss Longstaffe 

have gone." 

She draws a large armchair up to the fire, 
And there invites the somewhat feeble sire. 

" Now that I'm getting old, I sometimes think that 



28 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Providence provides for me when I cannot; for I 
have tried to find you thus alone, and failed. Yes, 
let me sit down by the fire, for I am feeble, and have 
not recovered from my sickness yet. Margaret, we 
have had many secret confidences in the past, but 
I now wish to tell you something which before I have 
not had the heart to do. Come, sit by me, and let 
me hold your hand." 

Margaret draws a stool up to his feet, 
And sweetly settles on the humble seat. 

" Margaret, can you imagine that a man like me, regarded 

as a confirmed bachelor, could love? " 
She glances up at him with childish face : — 
" Oh, dear, you must not speak like this. You know my 

situation. We can be the warmest friends, and you 

have always been to me the dearest one, but do not 

speak of love." 

And lie replies, with yet unhardened grace: — 

" You quite misunderstand me, Margaret. I will explain 

by saying that I am no bachelor." 
" I always thought you an unmarried man! " 
11 And so I am." 
11 If you are not a bachelor, nor a married man, what are 

you then in this respect?" 
u Simply an unmarried man." 
" Then I should say you were a bachelor! " 
" I dropped that title when I married." 
•' You said you were unmarried, though! " 
" My marriage was undone, and I thereby unmarried." 
" Oh, dear, I might have thought of that! Is she alive 

or dead?" 
,; I just heard, — through this letter, — that she has been 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 29 

dead for some time past. When many years had 
flown above our married life, she had another love, 
and in that way divorced herself from me: for when 
the sacredness of marriage is polluted, every bond of 
God is cleft in twain." 
" But were you ever legally divorced from her? " 
" Yes: let no man join what God hath put asunder." 
" What do you think of my position, then? " 
"Published in the daily Chronicle of yesterday, I saw an 
article, connecting you with Roger Charlton, which 
caused my watery blood to boil as it had never done 
for years before; and that it was which drove me 
here to talk with you, and as your truest friend, 
who seeks alone your welfare, to ascertain the views 
you hold upon this subject, and to give you mine: 
and then, if you should see as I now do, I ask you, 
Margaret, to break your present chains, and link 
your future happiness to mine. 
" I have my grand old country home ; but you have not 
a home at all. My life is lonely ; yours can be but 
little else. As you now stand, the dangers from these 
untried youths surround ; but if with me, the long 
tried friendship of an older mind would always be 
around, and your sweet child would have a Paradise 
of Nature's purity surrounding her. I think I could 
supply your every want. My literary works have 
always lacked a central figure on which they could 
concentrate their power and with the moderate fame 
which I already have, I think I could exalt you by 
my love and poetry to earthly immortality. 'Tis not 
conceit which makes me come before these youths 
whose greener charms make pallid my old age, but 



30 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

that I think my love could give to you more happiness 
than theirs. (Mrs. Townsend has not gone as yet, and 
at the door takes what her ears can get.) But whether 
you become my wife or not, one half my fortune I 
bequeath to you. (Having heard what she desires, the 
woman at the door retires.) Now let me first convince 
your reason that your present life is guided by mis- 
taken views of right and wrong and then I'll leave 
you free to choose your future lot." 

Margaret's breast has seemed to be afire : 

Her words like smoke now rise toward the sire: — 
" If I, this very day was free, your arms could be my 
heaven's boundary ; for if I ever longed for freedom 
it was but a passing sigh for rest. But having heard 
me say repeatedly — that as I am, so must I be — know- 
ing, that conscientiously, I cannot change my present 
life — how can you be so cruel as to say to me — such 
words as these ? Do not produce your arguments. 
/ am, till death, the wife of Robert Kent." 

Suddenly is heard a knocking, 

The quick ear of Silence shocking. 

Miss Longstaffe opens the door, 

And again is seen no more. 

" Why, Alex, my dear boy ! What brings you here ? 
But wait. Allow me, Mrs. Kent, to introduce to you 
my nephew, Dr. Walton, just arrived from Philadel- 
phia. Alex, Mrs. Kent of whom you've heard me 
speak so frequently." 

Mrs. Towmend is again seen to appear. 
Walton and Margaret seem very queer. 

" Excuse me, Mrs. Kent, if I am too abrupt. But it was 
necessary I should see my Uncle just as soon as 
possible, and, entering your house, I met a woman 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 31 

at the door, who said she was a nurse from Bellevue 
Hospital, and that she'd brought a message for my 
Uncle. — Here it is." 

7 he old man takes it with suspicious looks: — 

" It bears a stamp of life and death, — a hospital I" 

Young Walton's movements have too many crooks, 

And Margaret is embarrassed with this man. 

When their eyes met, — a momentary thing, 

It startled both, as such tilings only can 

When thoughts take flight on Fascinations wing. 
" Pardon me, Mrs. Kent! Your heel is grinding in an 
envelope. Permit that I should pick the letter up 
for you. (He hands the letter from which Kent's 
address Charlton had copied. — Margaret's thoughts 
digress from Walton, — who seems an Ideal, — to Robert 
Kent, ivho seems to her too real. — ) Uncle is in a 
faint! Will you assist me please? It's strange he 
should have fainted here. Look out! You're faint- 
ing, too!" 

For Margaret is passing through 
States when we neither wake nor sleep, — 
Dangling in space betwixt the two, — 
When now we soar; — and now we creep. 
At last she finds herself awake: — 

" Look at your L^ncle, please." 

But Walton, seemingly, his turn must take: — 

" Why, I forgot about his being in a faint! What could 

have brought it on?" 
" That message lying there, of course." 
" It's strange, but I forgot about my message, too!" 
" It's strange, but you're forgetting all about yourself." 

Walton aivakes himself at last, 
And blushes for the moment past: — 

" Come, he must need attention ! Quick ! Glance at 



32 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

the message, please, and tell me what it is. It may 
require an answer before he revives. I'll soon revive 
him, though, with this ammonia." 
" According to this message, his wife has been, for ten 
years past, the best and noblest nurse in Bellevue 
Hospital, but now is lying on her death-bed suffering 
in the horrid agonies of smallpox. She sends to him 
these words: 'I am descending into Hell! Have 
you forgiven? Answer me.' " 
u I understand! The eternal misery of a dying woman 
turns upon a word from him. A second may extend 
into Eternity. — He moves his lips! Please help me, 
Mrs. Kent, to catch the word. Bend closer: — listen 
now." 

In eagerness to catch the word 

Their cheeks touch: Margaret's voice is heard, — 

As over her love' s passions swell, — 

'* ' I am descending into Hell! ' " 

Walton, construing her intent, 
Knows not she thinks of Robert Kent, 
And says, — supposing that her strife 
Was to gain pardon for the wife, — 

'• Well imitated. He has answered, ' No. 1 " 
Mrs. Townsend has crept far into the room, 
And site now makes herself apparent through the gloom: — 

" Ah, Margaret! Have you made another friend f " 

" Oh — I beg your pardon! We — you — I didn't notice it 
was getting dark. I'll light the gas." 

,; Kisses are quite enough to light a fireside with." 

Margaret, however, lights the gas, 

As Walton's hand pours three drops in a glass: — 

" There madam, is our apology. We were reviving Uncle 
from a faint." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 33 

" Rather a faint apology! " 

" Come Uncle, out into the hall. A breath of fresh air 

will be good for you." 
''.Thanks, Alex. I would like to lean on Margaret, if 

she will permit. My mind needs her support." 

Mrs, T grasps Walton by the arm. 

The others pass. — She takes no art to charm. 
" I do not need an introduction, Sir." 
11 If you don't need one, surely I do not." 

And Walton turns himself away, 
But she resumes without delay: — 

" Allow me to introduce you to your mother, please." 

" Mother! Give me her name to hang my curses on! " 

"Why curse at her?" 

" Because she did a thing the meanest beast would never 
do. She gave me birth, and then deserted me." 

" i" am your mother." 

" Damn you, then! " 

" And damn your Uncle for deserting me." 

" What do you mean? " 

" I mean that I was once your Uncle's wife. That 
message was from me. I wished to know if he 
repented yet of his divorce from me. As he does not, 
I shall proceed to even my account with him. I — I 
am your mother and your Uncle's wife." 

" Vile dam ! And who am I ? " 

" Ha! don't you know yourself ? " 

" I only know what Uncle told me: that one bitter night 
some beastly woman left me at his door, a sucking 
babe." 

" Did he not know that woman was myself ? " 



34 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" I think he would have killed you if he did. You say 
you were his wife ! Is he my father, then?" 

"No sir, you are a bastard son." 

" A bastard! I could kill you and my father for the 
love which formed my soul." 

" Don't speak so loudly. You'll be overheard. Do you 
desire to know that your true name is ' Robert Olney 
Kent,' the same one which your Uncle bears ? You 
legally were christened that before I left you at his 
door. Whatever he has called you since is incorrect, 
because it 's not your legal name. Do you know 
what the name of ' Robert Kent ' implies ? ' " 

" The forfeiture of all I now possess! " 

" To gain one-half your Uncle's fortune, and a wife." 

"Can your tongue be connected with your brain ? " 

" My mind is. Listen: as your Uncle has not known 
my whereabouts, this revelation has been kept until 
to-day, because the proper time had not arrived." 

" And why not until now ? " 

" I have just ascertained that I am not forgiven by your 
Uncle for my hot offense to him when I loved some- 
one else, and I shall now begin my schemes to get 
control of half his fortune, which is willed to 
Margaret, and to get you a wife, if, as a wife, you can 
love Margaret Kent." 

"What?" 

" Her husband's name is Robert Olney Kent, and yours 
is?" 

" Robert Olney Kent ! " 

" Hence Margaret's marriage paper names you as her 
legal husband ; therefore Margaret is — " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 35 

" My wife ? " 

" By all the laws of man. Do you love her ? " 

" Love her ! love her ? I've never met her but this once, 
yet all my soul is in the passion of a man who kills 
himself or has what he desires ! " 

" Then hear me and obey. Conceal this secret of your 
birth, for you cannot prove anything alone. Resume 
your old name, ' Dr. Walton,' and win the love of 
Margaret under it until I say the proper time has 
come — and then, rely on me to prove that Margaret 
is your wife. Remember me. (Gives him her card.) 
And you, sir, are to be, ' Dr. Walton.' — Go. 

Walton starts, hut calls back from side hall: 

11 But is her other husband dead ? " 

Miss Longstaffe enters as the accents fall — 

" Yes, Margaret's Robert Kent is dead {Walton goes his 
way, and she goes on to say — ) or soon will be (is 

confronted by Miss L ; Mis. T seems entering 

Hell,) if Roger Charlton's manner tells the truth ! " 

Miss Longstaffe slowly repeals — '' Then Robert Kent is 
dead — or soon will be — " 

Her home-thrust Mrs. Townsend meets — " ' If Roger 
Charlton's manner tells the truth ! ' " 

But Miss Longstaffe beats no retreats — "If Mrs. Town- 
send 1 s manner tells the truth." 

— II — 

The scene is shifted to another room, 
Where Walton, Margaret and Olney Kent 
Are moving tl trough the gloom. 

Pale Margaret speak*:— 



36 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" And yon insist that this repentant woman is not still 
your wife, though in the eyes of law you are divorced 
from her ? What constitutes a marriage ? Verbal 
laws?" 

Walton sees a chance to stake his claim : — 
" Observation of the legal forms of marriage — " 

But Margaret frustrates his secret aim : — 

" In this day it's thought by many that a marriage does 
consist in observation of the legal forms, while that 
which truly constitutes the soul of marriage they do 
not regard as such." 
Walton no longer views her as his wife. 
The Uncle suddenly shows signs of life : — 

" Then listen, Margaret. In time another man stole in 
upon me and obtained her love, and I considered her 
divorced from me the moment that she gave it him; 
and when he ruined her, I held that they were mar- 
ried, though no legal form had been observed. For 
if the law would recognize such acts, alone, as valid 
marriages, there would be much less sinning in the 
world, as it would give the woman poiver to bind the 
man for life. But now she must bear all the blame 
and suffering while the man goes free." 

Margaret, with good taste, retires 

And Walton, wrapped in thought, enquires — 

" Is that act what does constitute a marriage, then ? " 

The old man weighted down with age, 

Rises in a petty rage: — 
" It is my idea of what the law should recognize as mar- 
riage, and bind the parties afterward if they're not 
bound before. Now men can ruin women and be 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 



37 



thought respectable ; but I think that the law should 
give that woman power to make that man bear his — 
the greater— share of all the blame, and it should 
give the woman power to use, at her discretion, every 
right a wife should have." 
Walton s voice assumes a careless langour: — 
" Why doesn't our laws protect a woman's rights ? " 

And Margaret enters, exclaiming with anger, 
" That question brings the Politician's nightmare on ! " 

— Ill — 

Into the gloom drifts William Pratt's garret, 

Where Pratt is seen; seeming a man to merit 

A better home. His sick child is in bed. 

Charlton and Mrs. Townsend enter — he is by her led. 
" I tell you, William Pratt, I'm tired of living this 
apparently unmarried life, and being known as 
1 Widow Townsend! ' You don't exert yourself .enough 
to be acknowledged as my husband, and my dignity 
and reputation are at stake each time I visit you. 
That starving child will never be acknowledged as 
my own, nor will you ever have one cent more from 
my purse. Look at your starving child ! Now, if 
you value her life at the price of food, go, pawn 
that ring, and purchase what she needs. There ! 
act before you lose the action, sir. — Exactly ! as you 
always do ! I'll tell you for the last one-hundreth 
time, when you lack strength to do a thing, accept 
the strength which comes to you. That impulse, 
taken, would have made you strong ; but turned away 
it took its strength with it. Come now, see here ! 



38 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

You promised your first wife never to part with this — 
her wedding ring. Well now, she's dead. Now well, 
she's dust. Admitted : your promise is to a clod of 
dust. All bosh — these foolish sentiments of keeping 
promises ! " 

Pratt shows himself to be her better half — 

" She is not dead, or else religion tells a lie." 
She greets his answer with a sneering laugh: — 

" Her bones are getting rank, and the loud smell begins 
to rankle, sir. But what are you to eat? That's right! 
get down there on your knees and order breakfast ; 
but 'twould be well to eat what meat you can in 
dreams to-night, then if the ' Providence ' to which 
you pray should fail to fill your orders, to-morrow's 
breakfast ' bill of fare ' may be : Cold Dreams and 
Mutton Tallow; Mashed Potato Skins. Your dinner 
could be : Cat-tail Soup. Your supper : Cat's Head, 
cold. Your — " 

" What do you mean ? " 

" I mean, Sir William Pratt, that you will have to cook 
the cat or starve to death. You've eaten everything 
you have to eat except the cat ; you've spent your 
every cent, and you will never have another one from 
me ; you've not a friend of whom you could intend 
to borrow and not beg — and you would rather starve 
than beg. Your sickness and this cursed strike have 
paralysed the hands which earned you your support ; 
you have refused to pawn your ring, and you have 
nothing else to pawn : you've lived for two days now 
without a thing to eat, and on this diet you will 
surely starve — Toby ! come here. I'll gut you now, 
and let you parboil over night." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 39 

" Hold ! — but I cannot pawn this ring." 

" Cannot is not will not, sir ! " 

" I will not pawn this ring." 

u Strength can be gained upon an empty stomach, sir." 

" Yes, my employer's strength was gained upon my empty 
stomach, but he too will suffer for the wrong as well 
as I. We poor men are awaking to our rights, and 
when our waking dreams are over (takes a bomb from 
secret closet) — we will settle down to cold realities. 
The cry of every poor man's rights and wrongs shall 
then be heard. Though it require a bomb-shell for 
a trumpet, our voices shall be heard." 

While he replaces bomb in closet, 
Mrs. Toivnsend speaks to Charlton: — 

" (I think I've got him desperate enough. Proceed.)" 

Charlton from the shades advances: — 

" Your name is Pratt, sir, I believe." 

Pratt fires at him suspicious glances: — 

" The same. And what is yours ?" 

Charlton sits down in a chair: — 

" You will be pleased to know ; and therefore ' business 
before pleasure', sir. I understand that you and 
Robert Kent are bitter enemies ; although I don't 
know what the trouble is ! " 
Pratt towers higher in the air: — 

" I've sworn to kill him if we ever meet ! My life was 
ruined through false accusations he has made." 

" Accusing you of what ? " 

" Untrue relations with his wife." 

" Then they were false. This letter states my business 
with you." 



40 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Your business is mysterious, and I can't see to solve it 
by this candlelight." 

" This is a useful ornament." 

" The lamp is empty, lad, and we have no oil in the 
house." 

" Well, surely you have gas ! " 

u Gas ! There is no gas in the house." 

" My sense of smell deceives me then. I am acquainted 
with your wife. (To Mrs. Townsend.) Will you take 
my pocketbook and purchase comforts for that 
shivering child ? I shall expect you back immedi- 
ately. Go." 
Pratt looks a moment at his first wife's ring, 
And tighter to it he is seen to ding: — 

" One moment. Sir, I wish to ask you while you're in 
the mood, with my right hand your sole security, 
will you lend me enough to pay my room rent, which 
is two months overdue ? I am afraid my child and 
I will be turned out into the street if it is not paid 
soon." 

" I will attend to it before I go away, but in the mean- 
time, I wish you to read that letter, sir." 

" Then I must find some place where it is light enough, 
for this is my last candle, and it even now is sputter- 
ing in the stick." 
Charlton aslcs of Mrs. T , 

" He is a man of honor, is he not ? " 
And she answers sneeringly : — 

" Humph ! he is a man of sentiment" 

" Enough ! I trust him then. Go, read it where you 
will." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 41 

Pratt exist*. Mrs. T decides, — 

u And I will go and get the comforters." 

Behind a chimney in the gloom she hides. 

The candle gives one sputter in the stick, 

And burns no more ; having consumed its wick. 
" You poor old starving cat ! Is it a pleasure to sit there 
and mew at me ? ( Charlton picks it up.) Poor thing, 
you must be starving here. It might be kindness if 
I killed you now ! Bat it is said that every life has 
some especial use in Providence, and I should feel 
that it was wrong to take your life unless I knew you 
had been useful. With that knowledge I could kill 
you conscientiously." 

Mrs. T , uith a decided mind, 

Steps from the chimney she has hid behind:— 

" Sorry to trouble you. I'll not be back again." 

" It's no intrusion. Don't apologize." 

" Apologize ! Intrusion ! Well, who thought it such ?" 

" I thought that you thought that I thought that you 

thought you were intruding." 
" No sir. I merely came to say that I shall never come 

again to live with William Pratt, and I resign all 

partnership connecting me with the impending crime 

of murdering Robert Kent." 
" You kindly volunteered assistance, and I thank you for 

what you have done. I shall proceed to carry out 

your part myself." 

" Miss Longstaffe knows that we are both together in the 

scheme." 
" I told her my intentions : you were not then in my 

thoughts." 



42 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" She found me out herself. But do you still persist in 
saying you will never marry Margaret when she is 
free ? " 
" A fool could answer that as well as I." 
" Remember this : if ever you seek such a thing, I'll let 

her know who murdered Robert Kent." 
" And if you hold your tongue till then she'll never know. 
(Mrs. Townsend starting to go out, Charlton quickly 
wheels himself about.) You are the first woman I 
have ever failed to trust ! — Please give me back my 
purse before you go." 
" I think I must have dropped it down below ! " 
" If this is an equivalent, I wish to trade it for the purse." 
" And what is the equivalent you wish to give ? " 
" I'll give a pound of flesh from either arm if you will 

give me back my pocketbook." 
" What nonsense ! " 
" 1 will do it." 

" I would like to see you do it. — Here's the purse." 
" Then you shall see me do it. (lights a match, with — ) 
Here's the cat." 

Mrs. Townsend, in chagrin, 
Shoivs her skull was not too thin: — 
" The purse is empty, sir." 
Charlton quickly opens it, 
While, a match spark still is lit: — 

" The lining holds ten thousand dollars on a check I 
— My God ! what apparition's that ? " 
Child advances in night-robe, with — 

" Nellie ! Nellie ! ! Nellie ! ! ! " 

Falls in Charlton s arms; — he strikes another match. 
The light reveals the features of the child, 
Who with Death's agony is nearly wild:— 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 43 

11 And is this Death ? We men call Death a sleep, and 
in one moment more I'll close these lids for their 
eternal slumber, but the soul — O God ! — release it — 
do not let it struggle so ! 'Tis gone — poor body, 
sleep. — Ah, Mrs. Townsend, think of Robert Kent ! 
Well might he envy such a death as this. The child's 
last earthly vision was her heavenly — ? " 

' l Sister's!" 

" — face. I wish that Kent's last earthly vision could 
be Margaret's. That she would kneel before him with 
her face as I have sometimes seen ; as though damp 
chills were freezing in her back, while in her breast 
burned such dry fever that her heart, between the 
two, seemed twisted out of joint. At such times would 
the tender fibres of her face be drawn so tightly that 
it seemed as though the flesh would crack, and he, 
the demon who could draw them so, smiled on, 
unmindful of the harsh contortions which his smiling 
made. I say, it would be well if his last sight of 
earth could be this ghastly congregation of its 
elements — the face of Margaret by his spirit breathed 
upon ; for if he strolled into Eternity from such a 
sight as this, his soul might soften till he realized he 
was in Hell. But having been so long there while on 
earth, if now the earth is merely drawn away, I fear 
the change will be so slight, he will not notice it." 

(Charlton 7'ises, dropping the dead child 
Unconsciously. Mrs. Townsend's voice is mild — ) 

11 And is it possible you will not want his wife when he 
is dead ? " 

A 11 his vigor seems to die 
As he makes the sad reply: — 



44 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" As I have always said : when 'Robert Kent is dead, I 
shall leave Margaret, and, if possible, evade the law, 
simply because I do not wish that she should ever 
know how his death came to him. She must be led 
to think it was a natural one. Until you told me of 
the enmity 'tween Pratt and Robert Kent, I thought 
that I would go to South America, but now, if Pratt 
will go, I think that not one detail of the scheme 
could be much better planned for gaining Margaret's 
future happiness, and if Pratt, voluntarily, will fight 
the duel to whichyou say Kent once challenged him, 
I see no reason why his difficulty should not settle 
Margaret's as well." 

" But you love Margaret, do you not?" 
She notes his voice with melancholy Jill: — 

" I have not yet decided what constitutes true love of 
sex for sex." 

Young Charlton pauses, — and the ivorld seems still. 
***** 

Pratt entering like a drunken man, 
In darkness on the dead child ran, 
But stumbled on, — apparently 
Not thinking what the form might he: — 

" I have been trying to decide. The more I think of it, 
the less I think of it." 

Charlton offers him a chair: — 

" You know the stipulated sum for proof that Robert 
Kent has died, and if you wish to fight the duel to 
which he once challenged you, we'll sign these papers, 
and — it rests with you." 
Pratt's wrongs seem more than he can bear: — 

" I am a desperate man, and I could do a desperate 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 4 5 

thing, but I cannot desert my wife and child, as I 
should have to do in case I went to South America. " 
C narlton forces him to sit: — 

" I do not wish to seem cold-blooded, yet I am by nature 
blunt when telling an unpleasant truth. Your wife, 
sir, has deserted you : your child — " 

Pratt jumps as if he had been hit: — 

" My wife deserted me! God be — " 

" We have no time for sentiment. Be reconciled as 

quickly as you can." 
" God be thanked. I'm reconciled." 
11 You've my congratulations. But your child — " 
"Don't say it, lad!" 
"What?" 
" That she has taken her away! " 

Again he offers Pratt a chair:— 

" No, she has not." 

Pratt sinks into it with despair: — 
" I'm on this earth only because my child is here, for 

without her I should not care to live, and / would 

suicide if she should die." 

He rises, starting toward the bed. 
Charlton grasps him near the head : — 

" Here! here! No time for kisses now. ' Business before — ' " 

Pratt sits again: — 

*.' I have been very sick, and can earn nothing yet at 
work. Shall I sit feebly by and day by day see my 
child starve, when now to do this thing would give 
her everything she needs for years to come? But if 
I go away, who will take care of her? " 

"I. (Charlton glances behind him.) She will not want 
for anything." 



46 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Mrs. T is weeping with a vim. 

"What noise is that?" 

" A storm is coming on. It is the wailing of the wind." 
Pratt asks the young solicitor : — 

" How will I know that I can trust yon, sir ?" 
And Charlton makes this his reply : — 

" By this check for ten thousand dollars, which will be 
paid to-night, if you agree to furnish satisfactory 
proof that Robert Kent no longer lives upon this 
earth. Knowing you had a wife and child, and likely 
some pet creatures which might require my care, I've 
put this promise in these papers, thinking it would 
cover everything : — ' To whatever living thing which 
you now have, I will give everything which love can 
give till you return.' And so to prove my own good 
faith, I will now pay to you the stipulated sum, and 
you, to prove your own, must leave the child with me 
until delivery of the proof to one whom I have 
herein named." 

Mrs. Townsend is still wailing 
Over her dead child ; no failing 
In a woman once a mother, 
Can all love for her child smother. 

" For my child's sake, I'll do it, sir." 

" Then as 'tis herein written, if I pay ten thousand 
dollars, you relinquish every claim on every living 
thing which you now have, and give me sole posses- 
sion from this hour until you have delivered to a 
party herein named the satisfactory proof that Robert 
Kent no longer lives upon this earth : Understanding, 
that for the proof which you deliver, I will return 
whatever this agreement places in my care, which in 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 47 

the meantime will receive more than your love could 
give if you remained at home. Is it a bargain ? " 

Still that piteous wail is heard ; 
Making hollow Pratt's stem icord, — 

" For my child's sake, I'll do it, sir." 

" Then go and get a light, that we may sign these papers 
now. (Charlton, stumbling 'gainst the child, turns with 
every action wild.) No, never mind, I've two wax 
matches here." 

" You can't write much by just two matches, sir." 

" We need write nothing but our names. Already every- 
thing is written in the terms which we have made. 
(lights a match.) This paper is in duplicate. Please 
read it while the first match burns." 

He glances at the dead child's form, 

And motions to a calm the storm. 

Pratt reads:— His sight begins to blur: — 

" For my child's sake I'll do it, sir." 

And with a flash the match goes out, 
The instant Pratt has turned about. 

" Here is a fountain pen. Please sign your name while 
this, the last match, burns. — Where are you going, 
sir ? " 

" I have not strength to sign it till I see her pleading 
face ! " 

" No time for sentiment. No light for seeing faces now. 
Sit down and take the pen before I light this match, 
which is the last — the only one I have." 

Lights it. — Pratt signs, and tnes to start 
Toward the bed. — Charlton s hands part: — 

" One moment, sir ! I said you would be pleased to know 
my name." 



48 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

A nd Charlton shins his signature. 

" What ! Roger Charlton ! my employer's son? " 

" The same." 

u I am not pleased to know you, lad." 

" If you betray me now, this paper shows you a co-part- 
ner in the plot." 

" That need not have been said. I am no traitor, sir." 

"The steamer sails for South America at four o'clock 
to-morrow afternoon. By that time you must cash 
this check, take out what money you will need, 
deposit the remainder as you wish, purchase your 
passage and what clothes you want, and take the 
boat for South America. Enclosed in this you'll find 
instructions for locating Robert Kent. Now — string 
your wits on threads of wisdom, and — begone." 

" Where ? " 

" 'Most anywhere, 's long 's you take the boat to-morrow 
afternoon." 

" What ! Would you turn me out of my own home ? " 

" This home is not your own. My father, your 
employer, was the owner of these flats. He has just 
died and left the property to me. You are two 
months behind, sir, in your rent, and I must ask 
you to vacate at once." 

" Why turn me out into the storm for just one night ? " 

" Ten thousand dollars ought to warm you just one night." 

" This check, sir, is not worth one cent to me until it's 

cashed." 
"Why, my dear friend, I hadn't thought of that! — 
Here take — Oh, I forgot! My purse is empty. Phew! 
what shall I do? " 
u Let me stay here to-night and I won't need a cent." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 49 

" One moment! God — {Extends his arms toward Mrs. 

T , whom, in the dark, Pratt fails to see. — ) Five 

dollars!— Thank you. Take it. Go." 

" What! does God hire you to do this crime? " 

" I settle the account with Him." 

" — But why are you so anxious I should leave this room 
to-night ? 

" I've just assumed my father's business, and I'm 
resolved to run the thing on strictly business prin- 
ciples. This is the first day of another month, your 
rent remains unpaid, and you must go. I never 
break a rule in business." 

" Then I will bid my child a long good-bye, and go." 

" Please go without. She must not be disturbed." 

" And why not wake her, lad?" 

u Would you recall her to this earth and all its sufferings, 
when now she seems so peaceful in her sleep?" 
Pratt calms himself, and meekly makes reply: — 

"I know the agony of her pains, and when awake she 
suffers terribly. I'll kiss her only once, and then 
I'll go." 
But Charlton stands, and will not let him by: — 

11 Is your parental love a sensual one?" 

" It will be done so softly that — " 

" You must not kiss that child! " 

" / must not kiss my child! What right have you to tell 

me that? " 
" The right that you have given in this paper. Sir, it 

reads, that you relinquish every claim, and give me 

sole possession from this hour — " 
" This hour has not yet ended! " 
" Hark! — the clock is striking, sir." 



50 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Pratt leaves, without another word, 

And from the darkness Charlton s voice h heard: — 

" Now Mrs. Townsend, I can almost call the murder done, 
but it has seemed as though the heavens were against 
my scheme. A man must feel himself almost a God, 
before he takes a human life into his hand and moulds 
its destiny to suit his own designs. Yet so have I 
now done with Robert Kent. I've placed myself 
before my God : have deemed my judgment equal 
to His own, and have despatched the soul of Kent to 
Hell before its Maker's proper summons came. It 

must not be. Pratt, come . No. I will 

not let the frenzy of a moment undermine the calm 
deliberation of a month. I'll play between Creator 
and created : the human tool of Divine Providence. 
Through Gladys' letter I'll give God a chance to 
thwart my scheme. But I have firmly put my hand 
upon the plough, and there will be no vacillation now." 

Again Pratt staggers through the door. 

" What are you back for ? " 

And Charlton drags the child across the floor: — 
" Anything forgotten, Pratt ?" 

" No, — nothing. But a thought passed over me which 
made me sicken till I staggered to the ground. 
Perhaps it was a foolish thought — but, lad, upon your 
honor, — yes or no, is my child dead ? " 
Charlton meets him with uplifted head 
And shoulders back: — 
" No sir, she is not dead." 

Pratt exits. 
Charlton s nervous strain Is past. His muscles slack:— 
11 Have I, or has Religion told a lie ? " 



ACT II 

Time brings before our eyes a different scene. 
Rio Janeiro lies, loith glittering sheen, 
Far in the night's background : One house is near. 
A man and woman presently appear: — 

" Florence, I have decided we must leave Rio Janeiro, 
and I'm so grieved about two things, that I can't 
tell for which I grieve the most. I'm sorry I can't 
pay the mortgage interest on our home, and that the 
whole affair will have to be foreclosed; and yet this 
weighs but lightiy on my mind when I think you are 
called upon to bear the crushing disappointment too. 
Of course, the heaviest must naturally fall on me, 
but as just said, I have the added weight of thinking 
you are groaning 'neath the burden just as much as 
I, who suffer terribly, but please don't let my suffer- 
ing make you suffer, dear; for mine is mainly caused 
by thinking of your suffering for me. So, dearest 
heart, be happy in the happiness of thinking I am 
happy by your happiness. Now leave me with my 
thoughts, for when my eye of sense is blinded by 
the night, I can see clearer mentally, and may dis- 
cover some way out of our entanglement. — Are you 
not going, dear? — Please do not cling to me like this! 
I wish to be alone. — Good-night, my darling! — Now, 
dear, this kiss must be our last. — Please, Florence, I 
wish you would leave! — I must use force if you refuse 

(51 ) 



52 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

to go. — See now what you have done! you've wrung 
your hand in mine so much that you have worked 
your wedding ring from off your finger, and it's fallen 
on the ground. — No, no, don't poke around for it 
there in the sand. You'll only bury it. Just step 
aside and wait till daylight comes. Now you must 
leave. Again, Good-night! " 
The woman leaves, and he calls after her, — 
" I will be with you, dear, in half an hour, at least.'''' 

And then he adds, — 
" I said ' in half an hour at least ' ; now I will add ' but 
never at the most.'' Show me a woman whom I cannot 
dupe ! " 
A woman enters at the closing word: — 

" I'll show you one ! " 

He starts, and turns to see what he has heard : 
" Well, woman, you are punctual ! Now prove that you 

are not insane to make in writing an appointment at 

this time of night in such a place as this." 
" Sir, I wish you to know that I am Mrs. Town send of 

New York." 
" Ah ha ! — then you are not insane." 
11 That follows." 
" Certainly: because you never yet were what you seemed 

to be." 
" What seems my reason for now being here ? " 
"That Margaret sent you as a spy." 
" You will not be deceived in that." 
" I'm not so sure of it." 
" You will believe me, though." 
" Not while I can surmise." 



THE TRAGEDY OP ERRORS 53 

; ' Belief in me will be your ' saving faith.' " 

" Believing in the devil saves no man." 

'* Believe my words : There rise the gallows, sir." 

She points into an open well near by. 

He staggers back, making the quick reply: — 

" To know of it you must have seen it done ! " 

She comes up to him with extended hand: — 
" One-half the plunder will forever seal my lips." 
He sums what dignity he can command: — 

" I don't believe your promise would be kept." 

With which she snaps her fingers in his/ace: — 
" Then you will lose your life through unbelief." 
A ml he replies as he retires a pace: — 

tl No madam, I do not believe I will." 

She has but one condition in her threat: — 
'• Unless you have a '' saving faith' in me." 
But he will not accept salvation yet: — 

kt I'll think it over ; in the meantime, you keep cool. I'm 
going back to Margaret, if I can get the where-with- 
all to take me there with all my strategems. Here's 
the result of my last one — conceived while it was 
executed. Poor Florence ! It's our wedding ring. — 
How odd that sounds! Why, it should be 'our wedding 
rings.'' (Tales off his own.) i Our wedding rings ! ' 
(Jingles them.) That does sound better ! These two 
will sell for old gold now, and buy some trinket to 
present to Margaret. Yet Gladys was the one who 
sent the invitation to come home. I wonder if I must 
present it at the door 'fore Margaret will let me in ! 
And by the way ! It might look better if I had our 
wedding ring upon my finger when I knocked. I've 
worn it on my middle toe. I'm superstitious about 



54 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

wedding rings ! (takes off his shoe.) I wonder if she 
loves me yet ! Oh well, no use in speculating over 
that. She'll have a chance to prove it if she does. — 
Here is the ring upon the other toe that Margaret 
gave when Gladys came. The wedding ring was on 
my finger when she put this after it and said — 
1 Robert, let this one guard your wedding ring.' 
Come ! come ! no more of this ! I'll get my shoe and 
stocking on, and then, — No madam, I cannot believe 
in you." 
Again she makes her proposition f till: — 

" Give me one-half the spoils which you have hidden in 
this well and I will not reveal your crime to anyone. 
If you refuse, I'll see that you are hung till dead." 

He lights a lantern .'—gives his nose a pull: — 
" A court trial's better than a lynching mob ! " 

She mocks the sanctimonious priest: — 
" * Believe, and you are saved.' " 
" ' Forgive, and I do believe ! ' " 

The imitated prodigal then ceased 
To be upon the earth — descending in it. 
She, like the priest, has inspired in a minute, 
An ignorant, belief 'gainst what is known: — 

" Salvation will not come by faith alone." 

Unlike the priest, she speaks out her true thought, 
Regarding the belief which has been taught. 
A man steps slowly from behind a tree, 
And Mrs. Townsend beckons, — " Come to me." 

" Tell me, Sir William Pratt, having now run a skunk 
into a well, how can I kill him best ? " 

Pratt sloioly turns around— she hears him say — 

" By burying him." — and moves without delay, 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 55 

Up to a stone which poises on the brink, 
And ere slow Pratt again has time to think, 
Rolls it into the well. They both peer down, 
And she takes hold of Pratt's head In/ the crown: — 

" See him there in the mud ! The stone's on top of him. 
There's not a sound arising. — Robert Kent is dead." 

But mad Pratt, peering down the well, 
Seems gazing at the sights of Bell: — 

" Look ! look ! his spirit's coming up ! " 

" It's but the flickering of his lantern on the wall." 

" Do you see any blood upon my hands ? " 

" Your mind is wandering ! " 

Pratt claps his hand across his eyes, 
And with an effort starts to rise: — 

" Had you not led me to believe that this man was his 
uncle, after whom it now appears this man was 
merely named, I never would have pledged myself 
to do this sickening crime. You well know how the 
other Robert Kent, excited by your always lying 
tongue, accused me falsely of your ruin and disgrace. 
That accusation, in which he persisted with a stub- 
bornness which fed upon your lies, has wrecked my 
entire life, and had this Robert Kent been him, as 
till the other night you led me to believe, I would 
have fought the challenged duel with no conscientious 
pangs — but when I learned that this was not that 
Robert Kent, I couldn't take his life and drink his 
blood." 

Mrs. Townsend goes to him: — 

" Then as I've done it, give me my reward." 

Pratt asks again, ivith added vim: — 
" Do you see any blood upon my hands ? " 



56 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Her mind is bent on but one thing: — 
" Will you give me my reward for killing him ? " 

Not yet has reason taken wing: — 
" When you have given proof that he is dead." 
" His name is tattooed on his hand." 
" The proof is handy, then." 
" And will the hand be proof enough ? " 

She asks, preparing to descend. 

Toward Heaven Pratt's lean arms extend: — 

" His hand and head — Ya -a-a-a-a — Kill me ! I am 
going mad." 

Mrs. T at once comes bad': — 

" I'll kill you if you'll give me my reward." 

She slaps his face a sounding whack: — 

" Come, are you going mad ? The love for which you 
plunged into this crime should help you out of it." 
The breezes of each blotv upon him seem 
To fan his sickly Reason s flickering gleam: — 

k( 'For my child's sake, I'll kill him, sir.' Oh, love did 
oil those words so well, that when I tried to say, ' this 
crime is wrong,' I said ' 'tis right,' for I felt something 
would be righted by the wrong, yet knew that it was 
wrong to make it right." 
" Come, stop your idiotic talk ! " 
" Had calm deliberation held my hand, until tired 

Reason muttered ' let it go — ' " 
" Impulsive strength would be unknown to you." 
" I've found it but a mental squall of wind." 
" But it has fanned your sickly nature into life." 
Impidsive strength becomes her as a wife; 
Again she f am his nature into life, 
Sounding as if she his face had kissed; — 
But when again she slaps, the face is missed. 
Pratt ansivers, with liis actions far less wild: — 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 57 

" If only I can once more have my child, we'll both die 
honored by that nature's honest death, before we 
thrive on Kent's dishonest blood." 

Mrs. Townsend grasps him by the beard: — 
" Then I should have the money Charlton gave. Sir 
William Pratt, your child was dead when that con- 
tract was signed." 

Stern Pratt does not believe — 'tims what she feared: — 
" My child was dead when that contract was signed ! 
You lie. The proof ! the proof will get me back my 
child. I'll give you all the money when you give 
the proof." 

She knowing well his stubbornness, 

Knows that he knows she is truthless, 

And down the well starts to descend. 

Pratt sliows on ivhat his doubts depend: — 

" I asked Charlton if she was dead, he answered, ' No.' " 

To which the woman adds — descending: — 
" And asked if he, or Christ's religion, told a lie." 

This puts all Pratt's doubts at an ending. 
Weakly sinking to the ground, 
He gazes vacantly around: — 

" There is no power in Heaven or Hell but love, and I 
must love myself enough to be avenged, or die where 
I now am. It is a power from Hell, but it must 
strengthen, (rises) No ! it's but an impulse and a 
madness. I'll not trust to it. (sinks — rises.) But I 
have promised Roger Charlton that my part of this 
contract would be fulfilled, and I will never break a 
promise I have made. Sure, honor is a love of self 
which Heaven must permit." 



,58 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Florence enters, seeking for the man 

She left behind. Pratt madly tries to scan 

Her face; and in the pale moonlight, 

Shoios that, at last, Reason has taken flight: — 

" Pray who are you, my lovely maid ?" 

"Iara the wife of Robert Kent." 

" Will you be mine when he is dead ? " 

" I am, till death his wife." 

" Well said ! My wife — once Mrs. Kent — said it, not 
knowing what it meant. A friend heard her pretty 
name, though she was a handsome dame — loved and 
plunged her into shame. Does my love for you seem 
tame ? It's because I fear the same. — Well, suppose 
your husband came ? Would apologies be lame ? — 
Come and kiss me, lovely dame." 

Florence runs away from him, 

While from the Well's ragged rim, 

Seeming from another ivorld, 

Gome the words, Jrom its depths hurled: — 

11 Pull up the bucket hanging down the well." 

Mad Pratt absently obeys, 
While his thoughts his actions craze: — 

" The woman says she is his wife. It is a fancy ! — Why 
is she his wife ? Because she has a passion for the 
man. I'll make her have a passion now for me : 
and then she will be my wife if she takes a fancy to 
the thought ; and we'll be married — married — why, 
what does that mean ? Come back, my head, and 
sit here on my shoulders while I think ! — What, this 
is not my head. — It is the head of Robert Kent ! — 
That lovely women has remained until his death, the 
wife of Robert Kent. My wife intended to, but she 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 59 

did not. No, she did not remain his wife, but let us 
see what power it was that bound the other wife of 
Robert Kent to him till death." 

Pratt follows Florence, with the head awl h<ni<I; 
The moon is blackened — darkness Jills the land. 



— II — 

The night scene shifts to Uncle Olneysftrm, 
After an evening party ; when the cliarm 
Of Japanese lanterns has nearly gone, 
And left only the moonlight on the lawn. 
Margaret and Dr. Walton enter: — 

" Are we alone at last ? " 

He siveetly tries to take her hand; 
But she refuses his demand: 

" Were we alone at first ? " 

" When we were bending over Uncle in your parlor, do 
you mean ? When Miss Longstaffe was in a room 
adjoining by an open door ? When Mrs. Townsend 
was behind us in the room which we were in ? And 
when your Uncle, absent through unsconsciousness, 
at any instant might revive and be with us ? — Well 
I suppose that we are now no more alone. Yet then 
we were in social solitude." 

''How could that be ? " 

" You were alone in wishing to revive my Uncle. I was 
alone in wishing, for a moment, he would not revive. 
Yet neither of us were alone ; for bending toward his 
lips in eagerness to catch that word, our hot cheeks 
touched, and we each felt the other one was then:. 
Do not deny it ; for I felt the warm blood flush into 



60 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

your cheek. My own head swam, but yours seemed 
trained for such emergencies. And let me now con- 
gratulate you on that little strategem — the tone of 
voice in which you wailed those words, ' I am descend- 
ing into Hell!' 'Twas such a perfect imitation of 
the way his wife perhaps wailed them, that they 
recalled his absent spirit far more quickly than I 
could have done with stimulants. The bare idea of 
imitating her showed brilliancy — perhaps your wit 
inspires my tongue too much ? " 
" Your silence seemed to best inspire my wit." 
; ' If you persist in being witty I must talk. Your wit 

inspires." 
" Your speech made my thought warm, but chilled my 

wit." 
" Then you shall think until your w T it perspires. I'll 
make a warmer speech to you. 'Tis that — 
One hope above all effort soars, 

One dream comes o'er me when 1 rest, 
And in my mind a rapture pours 

Which cannot be expressed 
Till you feel raptured at the word 

Which gives this hope, this dream, to life : 
Until, my darling, you have heard 

That I have hoped to call you — ' Wife.' 

'* Why, those are Roger Charlton's rhymes ! " 
Her dart strikes Walton through the head: — 

" They were anonymously published in a petty magazine 
(one which he thought she had not read) and Fancy 
strung them on my tongue. — But who is Roger 
Charlton, pray ? " 

" A friend." 

" Did Roger Charlton write these rhymes to you ? " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS Gl 

" Yes, with another verse. Will you repeat it, please ? " 
"Must I ?" 

Margaret hesitates : — 

" I— I think it best!" 

Walton for a moment waits: — 

" ' Still disappointed hopes will twine 

Around you, where life's dream is wrapped, 
Though that one thought — ' you'll not be mine ' — 

Has all their vigor sapped. 
But I will no more pain your breast 

With torturing love against it pressed : 
My future life from yours I'll wrest, 
Yet love you always. It — it — ' " 
He tvill not finish, 
She concludes:— 

" seems best." 

Walton, true to his own ■part, 
Knows she speaks not from her heart: — 

" Will you allow me, Mrs. Kent,to call you 'Marguerite? ' '' 

Miss Longstaffe enters with a large bouquet: — 

" Dr. Walton, do you like flowers ? " 

He still continues to look Margaret's way: 
"Yes, I like Marguerites." 
" How strange ! " 

" I like a singular — of the plural." 
11 What?" 

" I like a single Marguerite." 
" A single one ?" 

" I would not like a married one." 
" How foolishly you talk ! " 
" You have a Marguerite ? " 
" Yes, I have one at your disposal." 

And Miss Longstaffe extends a single flower: 
He looks at the bouquet with passionate power: — 



62 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Would you object if I should choose my own ? " 

" Not in the least." 

" Then I would choose this Marguerite for mine." 

He turns and looks at Margaret, 
Whose blushes show her passion yet. 
" I've never seen such boldness shown to Margaret Kent ! " 

And Miss Lowjstaffe could not forget. 
Walton speaks with downcast eyes: — 
" I humbly beg your pardon. Mrs. Kent, have I become 
too bold ? " 

A nd Margaret painfully replies:— 
" No — but — don't say any more to me." 
" Then, Miss Longstaffe, as she forbids my talking any 

more to her, I'll have to go away forever if I hold my 

tongue." 

And Walton seemingly prepares to go-, 
But Margaret's answer is not calm nor sloiv: — 
" Don't go away from me ! " 

Thinking it ivill exaggerate 

Her love, he tries to leave in haste: — 

" She has forbidden me to speak to her ! " 

She scorns him for such stubbornness: — 
" How cruel not recognize my countermand. Speak just 
one sentence, sir, then go away." 

But Walton sees she cares for him no less: — 

" Margaret, I will write to you." 

He leaves, and Miss Longstaffe remarks:— 
" That man well knows the art of making love. — Have 
you forgotten that your husband is alive ? " 

Margaret boivs her head; the silence harks: — 
" I have resolved to be divorced from Robert Kent." 



ACT III 

The wheel of Time another month has spun; 
Young Charlton up to Pratt's garret has run. 
He lights a lamp, unseals a letter, and begins to read: — 
" 'Oar true love bond is broken 
If the truth to me is spoken : 
'Tis that you, misunderstanding 

The power which is commanding 
The love you give to me, 

Are in your thoughts aspiring 
A hidden end : desiring 

To give me your love beyond 
Restrictions of my present bond 
With Robert Kent. ' 

Well, Margaret, I am aspiring 
this hidden end: desiring your true happiness beyond 
restrictions of your present bond with Robert Kent." 

He fires the letter with a match. 
Watching it burn ; then seems to catch 
D ^termination from the thought, 
And to his feet at once is brought: — 

" Desire for your true happiness forms my true love for 
you, and in what constitutes it, passion will not have 
one thing to do." 

A moment's silence: Enter Pratt, 
Treading on Toby, the cot. 

" Well, well, my friend ; I got your telegram saying you 
would return from South America to-day and meet 
me here to-night. You've kept your word." 

(63) 



64 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" I always keep my word when it is in my power. I've 

never broken but one promise in my life." 
"And what was that?" 
" I promised myself I should see my daughter here with 

you." 
Charlton takes a ■paver from his pocket: — 
" In this agreement it is written that you give me sole 

possession till delivery of the proof that Robert Kent 

has died." 

Pratt sputters at him like a rocket: — 

" And when that proof has been delivered will you give 

me back — " 
" You have my written pledge to give as I agreed." 
"Alive or dead ?" 

" Alive, as we agreed in this contract." 
" I don't believe you, lad." 
" Produce the proof that you have done as you agreed 

and I will carry out my part as / agreed." 
" I am convinced my child is not alive." 
" I never in my life have told a lie." 
" Give me my daughter first." 
" Let your proof prove me false or true to my agreement, 

sir. We'll carry out the thing exactly as 'tis written 

here." 
"And in case you have lied to ni3 ? " 

Charlton hand* to him a roll of bills: — 
" Examine them." 

Pratt in a moment with renewed hope thrills: — 
" Ten thousand dollars ! " 
" If I have lied to you, it will be yours." 

Pratt now believes that his~ child is alive: — 

" I will lay by the forfeit and produce the proof." 



U 1 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 65 

A hollow glass, shaped like a small bee-hive, 
He lifts out of a box as Charlton turns: — 
Within him horrid anger at Pratt burns:— 
" Do you attempt to craze me with a sight like this, and 
then deceive me with the thought : ' It is the head of 
Robert Kent ? ' — Yet it resembles every portrait I 
have seen." 
u Here is more proof for you." 
" A ring ! Well, what of that ? " 
" Please look at the inscription, lad." 

Robert — Margaret — December 20, 1876.' The fatal 
day that they were married ! Yes." 
1 Another ring which goes with that ! " 
' ' Gladys — October— 77.' Yes." 
' Do you want more proof ? " 
'Yes." 

Pratt gives to him the severed hand: — 

;< Read the tattooed inscription, sir." 
Charltoris gaze on it is bent, 
And he mutters, "Robert Kent," 
But seems not to understand. 
Slowly turning to Kent's head, 
In a strange, weird voice is said: — 
" I'm much more pleased with this sight over here. It's 
much more horrible, but far more satisfactorily it 
shows an end of Robert Kent. (Charlton acts quite 
foolishly.) Did you bring up the other one ? " 
" He only had one head. What do you want ? " 
" The other end of Kent. I want his foot. Laugh ! 

was not that a good pun, sir ? " 
" How can you be so heartless with your subject, lad ? " 
" So heartless with my subject ? Kent is a heartless 
subject, is he not ? Come, laugh ! That was another 



66 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

pun. Tel] me : where is the heart of Robert Kent ? " 

" I left it with his wife. She was a lovely woman ! She 
would be, till death, his wife. ' Will you be mine 
when he is dead ? ' — I asked her ; and she said — " 

"What are you telling me, you fiend ! That you have 
left the heart of that man with his wife ? Sir, when 
came you to know the wife of Robert Kent ? " 

" When he accused me falsely of her ruin and disgrace, 
and then held we were married, though no legal form 
had been observed : and as the man persisted in that 
accusation with a stubbornness which fed upon her 
lies, from a consideration for the woman, whom he 
then deserted, I consented to become her husband, 
but, me lad, she proved that when a marriage partner 
ceases to regard the sacrednessof marriage once, that 
partner's moral character is not improved by marry- 
ing a second time." 

" Sir, you are raving mad, and yet you have more wisdom 
than the bigwigs of our law, who, although Robert 
Kent's first marriage was a wreck, would stilt allow 
its guilty partner every right to wreck a second one." 

" Why need her first marriage have ended so ? " 

" Simply because of incapacity for a desire above a 
passionate love, which is the alcohol of a fermenting 
blood that kills the heart, although it stimulates the 
head and hand." 

"Ay ! Ay ! it ivas that love which made her heartless, 
but she had a head and hand which few could 
grapple with." 

" Sir William Pratt, present that sight to Margaret Kent, 
that she may hold it to the world's eye as an illustra- 
tion of the ruinous work of passionate love." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS '>< 

<'_The heart decayed, although the head and hand 

appear to be unchanged." 

* ***** * 

Pratt wonders where hk child can be: — 

*• But you amended your agreement ; keep it so. It's 
herein written I should give the proof to Margaret 
Kent, but you said if I would deliver it to you, you'd 
give me back — you are not listening lad ! " 

" Were you remarking something, Mr. Pratt ? " 

Sternly Pratt continues now, 
While a dottbt darkens his brow: — 

" 1 have just given, dead, the life you left with me. Please 
give me now, alive, the life I left with you." 

Charlton bows 'politely to the floor: — 

" This is the only one you left, sir. Here's the cat." 

Poor Pratt can hold in noiv no more: — 

" You liar, you have lied to me ! " 

Cool Charlton holds out their contract:— 

" Do you know how this reads ? " 

But Pratt's mind seems completely racked:— 
u I don't know anything." 
With self-possession Charlton reads: — 

" My charge was, ' every living thing' you had. When 
this contract was signed, your child was dead' 1 

Pratt couches like a tiger at his feet:— 

" Have you, or has Religion, told a lie ? " 

Charlton stands— then slowly beats retreat:— 

" — It's my belief Religion tells the truth.— I have been 
fairly beaten.— Take the forfeit, sir. The murder of 
this man and your wrongs torture my poor soul. Only 
my love for Margaret can make it bearable. — But 
Margaret, your happiness shall be my first desire, 
for merely amorous affection cannot constitute true 



68 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

love. When I have proved your happiness to be my 
first desire, this crime will be an noble one." 
Pratt's head has sunk upon his knees: — 
" Nothing is noble when ignobly done ! " 

His words Charlton's blood seem tojreeze: — 
u Then crime cannot be nobly done." 
He lays his hand upon Kent's head, 
And takes Kent's hand into his own: — ■ 

" Our marriage, Margaret, can never be ; but I thank 
Hell that you from Robert Kent are free." 

A past life lies before him, — dead, 

The future of the past,- -unknown. 
• * * * * 

From the closet Pratt removes the bomb, 
Lights the fuse — then stands a moment dumb: — 

" 'Tis written here, ' I will deliver the said proof to 
Margaret Kent? With not a promise broken in my 
life, shall I now break this one in death ? — No! (He 
extinguishes the fuse.) I will subjugate my death to 
what my life has been — a slave to that one sentiment 
of keeping promises. (Discovers Charlton in a faint.) 
Poor Margaret, I pity you, but I must to myself be 
true, and I've two duties to perform before I die ; one 
to that fellow-man, the other to my God. My duty 
to that fellow-man demands this promise be ful- 
filled: the duty to my God. — ' Thy will ' — judgment 
on Roger Charlton's head — ' be done on earth ': And 
that Thy judgment may be passed on earth, poor 
Margaret must read his signature on this — 'The 
Doom of Robert Kent.' " 

He puts Charlton s agreement with his own, 

And lays them in the hand of Robert Kent; 

Returns the head and hand into the box, 

And puts his bomb into a leather bag: — 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 69 

" This bomb ior Margaret : this bomb for me." 
And Pratt (joes out, taking the box and bag. 



— II — 

Again the esthetic home of Margaret Kent. 
But Margaret, herselj, this time is bent 

With easy grace above a manuscript. 
Her emptied pen into the ink is dipped, 

When George, a servant, enters with a card. ' 

" What, George ! a caller at this time of night ? " 
" Yes ma'am ; he says that he must see you, please." 
41 Why don't you bring the card to me ? " 
" Because I find you're in your ' sanctuary.' " 
" ' Sanctum ! ' can't you remember it ? " 
" No ma'am, I can't. I get the two words mixed some- 
times. The dictionary said a ' sanctum ' was a holy 
place where angels stayed, and so I never feel I'm 
good enough to come in here." 
" You're good enough to be wherever I am, George." 
" I never thought of it ! You are the kind of angels that 
stay in sanctums, then." 
Goes up to Margaret and gives the card. 
She reads the name — Iter features become hard: — 
" Why, what's the matter, Mrs. Kent ? " 
" Oh — nothing, — let the gentleman — come up." 
George leaves and Margaret calls after him: — 

" But he must wait a minute. I can't meet him in such 
plight as this." 

Lets down her hair before the glass. — 
George, hearing not her call, brings Walton in, 
Btd feeling his mistake to be a sin 
Unfitting him to stay where Margaret is, 
With bowed head, meekly vanishes. 



70 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Margaret ! " 

" Please call me, Mrs. Kent. Good evening, Dr. Walton, 
I hope you will excuse this great disorder and unti- 
diness. I had to have some writing ready by to-morrow 
for the printer, and have been working desperately at 
it. Being so late, I had not thought it probable that 
callers would come in. This is the copy of a poem 
which the editor had paid me for, and I had spent 
the money, and .my conscience twitted me. and I 
resolved to finish it. I've ruined my gold pen in the 
attempt." 

" I fear you ruined your pen writing me." 

" I fear that letter which I sent was ruinous to the bril- 
liant estimation you expressed." 

" Indeed, it did not ruin my own estimation of you, Mrs. 
Kent, but for a future brilliant estimation in the eyes 
of all the world, I think, — I hope — I half believe 
that it has ruined you. — I mean, that on the strength 
of what your pen has written me, I feel the right to 
ruin it and say ' You shall not write for money any- 
more ; henceforth I shall take care of you.' Please 
tell me : has not money made your pen go round 
to-night ? " 
The rising passion Margaret tries to hide: — 

" I see ; you do not know what a brilliant authoress I 
am. I have a Destiny." 

But Walton s passion is at its jiood-tide: — 

" Your Destiny is to belong to me. Have you not made 
it so ? Do you not wish it so ? I love you ! Simply 
love you, dearest, with the truest love on earth. — Oh, 
why are you so silent ? — Is it because you care for 
some one else — speak — more than me ? " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 71 

She items to Walton with uplifted face: — 
u No — no — there is no one ! " 

She yields to his embrace, — then shoivs surprise. 
And he, having her wedding ring, replies: — 

" You think I should have waited ! is that it ? — But why 
should I have waited? Are you not now mine? Then 
in all justice you ought not to bind yourself to me still 
linked by this ring to another man. If you now love 
me more than your dead husband, I have every right 
to break your former chain." 

u What sir ! is my husband dead ? " 

" Is he alive ? " 

" I thought you knew it, sir." 

" Why Mrs. Townsend told me he was dead ! Knew it ! 
I knew it ? What do you think of me ? " 

" I thought you knew. How could you help but know, 
when everybody does ? He is in South America." 

" — And is this so ! Then, simply to vindicate my con- 
duct, let me state the fact that I supposed you were 
a widow. — I beg you to enlighten my dull under- 
standing as to the nature of your caprice with my 
love. What role was I to fill in your life, please ? 
Must I read this ? It is from Uncle ! " 

Walton (/lances at the letter, 
Every nerve would break its fetter: — 

" Oh, I see ! You are going to have a divorce ! A most 
magnanimous intention. Personally I must express 
my gratitude." 

Margaret, stung by each expression, 
Struggles for calm self-possession: — 

" I never thought, sir, of deceiving you ! What have I 
done to gain or keep your love ? Did you not come 
here of your own free will ? And when your Uncle, 



72 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

whom I loved and trusted so entirely, wrote me in 
that way, I felt my safety and my happiness to lie 
in following his advice, — It seemed to have been 
settled for me, and I was so tired of struggling all 
alone. — I cannot understand it all! Your uncle says 
there in his letter that you wrote to him about your 
love for me, and I thought you had wisely settled it 
between you ; and so when you came to-night, — what 
else could I expect ? " 

Walton s thoughts, on passions tide 

Have been drifting far and wide: — 

" I understand it all. I have not yet seen Uncle Rob 
since I returned, and he did not have time to write 
before I came. He never dreamed I cared for you 
until I wrote. — But he speaks here of some young 
man, whose love should give you strength for a 
divorce." 

" Do you mean Roger Charlton ? " 

" Yes. Is Charlton anything to you ? " 

" What did I tell you once ? " 

" Tell me again. Is there a man, — leaving the one in 
South America alone, — who now stands nearer to 
your heart than I ? " 

" Dr. Walton ! " 

" Tell me." 

" Your ignorance insults me, sir." 

" My love is no less true ! " 

" Your ignorance still insults, if you believe our love can 
be. It is all ended : quite." 

" My love is true : the end can never be." 

' ; And do you think this passionate affection constitutes 
true love ? " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS i 6 

" When given only to one woman ; yes." 
Margaret like a yoddess stands — 
As one bound not tvitli Earth's bands: — 

lt Then you are with the world. Go, sir, where you 
belong. I am above such love.'' 



— Ill — 

On the ill-lit street in front, 

Enters Pratt, — with accents blunt: — 

" This bomb for Margaret ; this bomb for me ! " 

He ascends the steps. The door 

Walton opejis: — Pratt says o'er: — 
" This bomb for Margaret ; this bomb — " 

From Walton s lips the words are flung: — 
i% You drunken bum ! Clear out of here ! " 

Pratt asks, with every nerve unstrung: — 

k ' Is — is — M — Margaret to home ? " 

Walton thinks, " Whom can this be, 

Who speaks a word denied to me ? " 
" Who are you ? Where do you come from, sir ? " 
" I come from — from South America. — Is M-M - Mar- 
garet to home ? " 

" From South America .' " —the thoughts quickly occur : 

" He calls her 'Maryaret: ' " " Kent has come back to her ! " 

" ( This must be Robert Kent ! ) " 
" Is M - M - Margaret to home ? " 
" She is." 

Pratt, staggeHng, passes on and in, 

While Dr. Walton murmurs with a grin: — 
' ; And she shall teach me what does constitute true 
love ! " 

He listens for a moment: from within 
Comes a cry to make the cheeks grow thin, 



74 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

For Margaret's words the wildest horrors tell: — 
•• T am descending into Hell ! " 

Pratt, in a second, rushes through the door: — 
" Stand back ! Stand back ! I am a desperate man ! " 

He lights the fuse of bomb: — Walton stands o'er: — 
" Margaret shall teach me what does constitute true love. 
You shall not kill yourself ! " 

With which he snatches bomb: both grapple in 

The darkness: bomb explodes — and with the din 

A windoiv curtain flies up like a shot, 

Revealing Miss Longstaffe with anger hot, 

Extending Robert's hand to Margaret, 

In which " The Doom of Robert Kent " lies yet: 

Miss Longstaffe points at Charlton's signature: 

The light from window faintly shows the poor, 

Torn, xorecked, and lifeless form of honest Pratt, 

And Walton, stealing off without his hat: — 

While, dead, beneath the window, lies Toby, the cat. 



— IV — 

The scene is changed as by a magic spell. 

Rio Janeiro has a prison-cell, 

In which a man is lying on a bed. 

A woman rises: — he hurls at her head: — 
" None but the devil comes here in this shape ! " 
" Sh -h - h - ! not so loud ! I'm Mrs. Townsend, sir." 
" Yes, madam, that is what I said." 

Mrs. Townsend whispers in his ear: — 

" I have come here to help you to escape. Come, follow 
me." 

And he replies, in tones which mock her fear: — 
" ' Get thee behind me, Satan ! ' "' 

She motions to a hole through which she came: — 

" Give me your hand and I will save your life." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 7"> 

But he replies in tones he cannot tame: — 

" That's what you said when we were in the well. I cul 

my hand off and I gave it you " 

" And thereby saved your life." 

"I lost my freedom, which was just as dear." 

" You lost that for your brother's death." 

" You killed my brother, though." 

" When I cut off his head ? " 

" Yes ; for when I slung him in the well, the Court has 

proved he was not dead." 
" Well then, I saved your life by losing his." 
" My freedom, as I said, was life when lost." 
" Then I will save your freedom, sir." 
" You'll save my freedom by losing my life ! " 
" I'm not deceiving you." 
" Not in the least. You came to-night to kill me while 

I slept. I heard you digging through the wall into 

my cell. Behold, it is a trap : you are the mouse : I 

am the bait : you've nibbled at me — " 
" But it hasn't snapped ! " 
" The trap is of a different kind." 
" Hell ! " 
" You are in it : get out if you can." 



ACT IV 

Margaret now lives in a Country Home, 
Into a room of which she has just come, 

Where Miss Longstafte is taking stitches 
In a manly pair of breeches, 

Which, ill-fitting such a dame, 
Margaret sits clown to exclaim; — 

" The horror of my life ! To think that I, — I, Margaret 
Kent, who have had such visions and such dreams, 
have come to this ! " 

Miss Longstafit slowly lays aside her work:— 

" Margaret, is it Divine Economy to lose one life to gain 
another one ? " 

Margaret shows that both the question shirk; — 
" I wish you would decide for me. I'm losing everything 
for Robert Kent. Since he came home I have lost 
faith, hope, love and even self-respect, in order that 
he may live happily. (Gladys enters, but by neither 
seen.) Ambition lost, nothing is anything to me. 
How can I live when life from me has gone, and left 
me in my body all alone ? " 

Gladys steps from out behind the screen: — 

" Your life is in me, mamma ! I am here." 
" Yes dear, you are my life to me." 

Miss Longstaffe rises, taking Margaret's hand: — 

u And I ? " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 77 

" You are the salt of it." 

And she concludes, continuing to stand:— 
" Believe one thing ; that where you are, there I am also, 
Margaret. If thirsting in the desert, I too thirst 
with you : if where the waters bubble up, I too will 
bubble up." 
Margaret gives a little laugh:— 

"I like to have you bubble up ! — There, I feel better 
now, but do not like to have my patience in suspense." 

Then comes this ponderous speech from Miss Longstoffe: — 

" Margaret, I have at last decided an undecided ness in 
all my past decisions. I wish to talk with you. 
This life need not go on." 

She beckons Margaret and they leave the room. 

Gladys speaks as though ivithin a tomb:— 

" Mamma, I know papa has asked you for more money, 
but he shall not do it anymore. I'll give him all 
of mine. You wouldn't take it, but perhaps he will. 
I must help some." 
(She gets her bank and screw- driver.) "I've ever so 
many gold pieces. Real gold! Mamma said that they 
were. And one's a great big one. I'll count them 
over for the last time now, and I'll remember all the 
happiness which came with every one. (Her father 
comes in at the rear.) Here is the big one Uncle 
Olney gave me when I wouldn't marry Roger Charlton 
at my birthday-party 'cause I loved mamma too 
much to love him most. This was my wedding 
present when I didn't marry him. Good-bye now 
for the first last time ! (She kisses it.) Good-bye ! 
I will not look at you again. And here's the one 
that Mr. Charlton gave me when I wrote papa, and 



/8 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

asked him to come home to us. But I wish now I 
hadn't written it. The gold is redder than the rest, 
and always make me think of blood." 
Her father thinks it best to disappear. 
" Sometime I'll tell mamma about my writing to papa, 
but I'm afraid to tell her that I did. — Some one is 
coming ! I must cover these ! " 

Her father enters now as if from Heaven, 
Bearing smiles ivhich would all Sheol leaven: — 
" Papa, I wish you wouldn't ask mamma for money any 
more." 
Each smile dies out ivitli her exploded rocket: — 

"Why not?" 

Proceeds to take a letter from his pocket; 
Dampens a blotting pad; lays over seal; 
Places on shelf: weights, and turns on his heel. 

" Because she has to work so hard to pay for all these 
rooms, for what we eat, and for the clothes we wear. 
Now please don't go to her for money any more. — I'd 
rather give you mine ! " 

" Yours ! how much have you got ? " 

" Ever so many gold pieces." 

" Nickels, you mean. I don't believe they're gold." 

u Mamma said that they were." 

" I'll tell you if they are." 

" Well, — " 
Gladys reluctantly uncovers them: 
A love of gold a father s feelings stem: — 

" Phew ! Sixty dollars ! I don't think you love your 
father and your mother much, if, when you know 
they're bothered about money matters, you can hide 
away this wealth, and will give them no help at all 
with it." 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 7 ( .) 

Gladys to the heart is stung 
With the dart her father flung: — 

" Ever and ever so many times I've poured it out in 
mamma's lap, and said, ' Please use it. I would lovo 
so much to have you use it.' But she said that it 
was mine, and wanted me to keep it for myself." 

She stops — looks at it longingly, 

Until her tearful eyes no more can see: — 

" If you will use it — it is yours to do with what you like." 

Again that cursed love of gold 
Makes the fathers love grow cold: — 

" Well, I will take it for a loan, and just as soon as I can 
find employment, I'll replace it — put two pieces in 
for every one that I take out. — Perhaps it would be 
better not to tell your mother, dear." 
" I shall not tell mamma ! " 
A nd as only a child can cry, 
She leaves him, — sobbing to hi* sigh,— 

" Oh, well, we cannot cook a meal without a fire ! — I 
guess the seal is soaked enough to loosen now. 
(Opens letter — takes out check — ) One thousand 
dollars ! Phew! I am in luck. (He tools at the begin- 
ning and the end.) ' England — Roger Charlton, — let's 
see about this thing! (Reads.) ' I've been a stranger 
since we parted just one year ago, in order to allow 
your life to drift away from mine, 
But still yours is the form which clings 

About me, till its trembling wings 
Of love are drooping in my melancholy eye ; 

Yet in my mind's uncertain light, 
Dull doubts deny that I am right 
In still believing that it shares 
The love I feel, or that it cares 
For the desires which, slumbering, deep within me lie.' 



80 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Young man your love had better slumber till I die. 'I 
write you principally to verify what probably already 
is well known; that Robert Kent no longer lives upon 
this earth.' 

" Oh, I remember ! Mrs. Townsend said that Roger 
Charlton was the fiend who bargained for my hand. 

" ' Further than the fact that Robert Kent has died, I 
need not state, for I presume his death was learned 
upon your application for divorce, as both were 
nearly simultaneous.' 

'• Had Margaret applied for a divorce ? I knew it not. — 
' Under a nom deplume, I have just published my own 
poems in book form. As every sentiment expressed 
in them relates in some way to the love I have for 
you, I wish you to accept my interest in the copy- 
right, and overcome your modesty regarding the 
acceptance of financial help you have not worked to 
earn, by realizing that the poems would not have 
been written if it had not been for you ; as no one 
else could have called forth from me the sentiments 
therein expressed. Should you not wish, however, 
to appropriate the proceeds as your own, I have so 
left the matter with the publishers, that Gladys will 
receive the profits when she is of age. The enclosed 
check is from the publishers for one-half interest in 
the copyright, and in the future there should be a 
somewhat steady income from the royalties, which 
has all been arranged in such a manner with the 
publishers, that you hereafter will transact all 
business with them.' 

" As Uncle Olney used to say, ' Now that I'm getting old^ 
I sometimes think that Providence provides for me 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 81 

when I cannot:' for Margaret repeatedly has said 
that she would not accept one penny which she didn't 
earn, and I am sure that she would not accept as 
much as this ; and as to Gladys, — I might just as 
well be using it as have it lying in the bank until 
she is of age, and when she is, I can return it all. 
A little clever management, and Margaret need never 
know of it ; — and I am safe with Roger Charlton, 
for he adds, ' I shall not write again, and will conceal 
my whereabouts. Believing that my power to aid 
your happiness is exhausted, I must still allow our 
lives to further drift apart, well knowing that our 
marriage, Margaret, can never be.' " 

Robert thinks- George enters with a card, 
And Robert scans it with a strange regard: — 

" ' Robert Olney Kent! ' My uncle ! Why, he's dead. It 
may be some relation who has come here to dispute 
the will whereby one-half his fortune was bequeathed 
to Margaret ! Well, let the gentleman come in." 

George exits. 
Robert places Charlton s letter, 
For the lack of some place better, 
'Gainst his breast inside his collar, 
A nd begins to sport a dollar. 

Enter George, announcing Dr. Walton 
As "Robert Kent," but feeling that a fault on 
Some one's part must surely have been made, 
Gives Rob the card, and goes oid to his trade. 
Robert looks at Walton in surprise: — 

" Am I gazing in a mirror, sir ? — Is your name ' Robert 
Olney Kent ? ' " 
Walton stares at Robert and replies: — 

" Those are the words by which they christened me." 
Robert wonders at the paradox: — 



82 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" Kut that is my name, sir ! " 
This statement Walton evidently shocks: — 

" I thought you blew yourself to pieces with a bomb- 
shell at your doorstep just a year ago ! — I must have 
been mistaken when I thought that it was you, and 
ever since then I have been away, so my mistake has 
not been rectified. — Yet I persist, my name is ' Robert 
Olney Kent.' " 

Robert looks Walton straight in the eye: — 

u Whose fault is it that mine is just the same ? " 

And Walton coolly gives him the reply: — 

" But yours is not the same." 

Robert asks him, someivhat in alarm: — 
" Don't I know my own name ? " 
And Walton calmly waves at him his arm: — 

" Not if you call mine yours." 

Robert looks at him still more alarmed: — 

" It is the name by which they christened me." 

And Walton with the subject groivs more charmed: — 

" Perhaps you recollect the minister who christened 

you ?" 
Robert waves a handless arm at him: — 
" No bullying ! no bull-dozing, sir." 
Cool Walton asks, as Robert's face grotos grim: — 

" Did Mrs. Townsend ever say she saw you christened? " 

"No. Suppose she did?" 

" You would then hear about the ' H English ' minister 
who christened you, and of the Boston minister who 
christened me. The ' H English ' minister could not 
pronounce your middle name without an 'H '; hence 
you were christened, ' Robert Holney Kent,' while I 
was christened ' Robert Olney Kent. ' ' Holney, ,' 
' Olney f is the difference 'tween our legal signatures. 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 83 

Which one is written here in Margaret's ' Certificate 
of Marriage ' with the same ? " 

Robert reads, somewhat against his will: — 

" ' Robert Olney Kent.' " 

Walton remarks, while both their natures thrill: — 

"That is my legal signature ; not yours." 

" I'll give you just three minutes to clear out ! " 

And Robert draws an ugly -looking knife. 

" I'll give you till I've counted four to put that weapon 
down." 

And Walton, with a pistol, threats his life. 

" I've faced such threats too many times to be afraid." 

But Robert says it with a nervous twitch. 
Light Walton counts, unswerving in his aim: — 

11 One — two — three — " 

Robert slashes like a willow switch, 
The knife: — cross Walton s wrist it came, 
Quite severing it: both knife and pistol drop, 
While Robert adds, to justify his act: — 

" Once, sir, I gave my hand to save my life ; now you 
have given yours." 

But Walton is not ready yet to stop: — 
" Your life is not yet saved ! " 

Both, by a common impulse backed, 

Dive down: the weapons get exchanged, 

And Walton rises like a fiend deranged: — 

" I have another hand ! " 

And with the knife stabs Robert in the 
Robert tittering one sharp cry, — 
Muttering — 
" And so have I." 

Fires at Walton: both sink into rest. 
***** 

Miss Longstaffe and Gladys enters, 
With pale Margaret in the center. 
Coolly viewing Robert Kent, 



84 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

Miss L speaks, ivith slow accent: — 

" Margaret, I think you are at last released, if your own 
strength has failed." 
Margaret, with a weird spell bound, 
Tears Kent's clothing from the wound. 
Finding Charlton s letter there, 
Site gives it to Gladys' care: — 

" No ! no! he is not dead! He breathes ! " 

Margaret, with eyes closed in prayer, 
Does not see her husband raise 
On his arm and at her stare, 
While she for his death thus prays: — 

"0 God ! if Divine Providence supplied his life, provide 
now for his death, and take him into Hell, for he 
would find his Heaven there. Until his death I'll be 
his slave, but after death let him serve bondage to 
himself, alone. Our souls have never been united, 
yet our bodies have been bound together with a chain 
I have not had the strength to break. I've always 
thought 'twas noble not to try, and I've just proven 
that I think it still. God, do now for me what I 
can never do : release me from his loathed embrace." 

As Charlton toished, Kent's soul was softened well, 

Until he realized he was in Hell: — 

"There is no God, but you shall be released." 

A bullet choTced the words, and his life ceased: — 
****** 

Margaret sees the crime of her harsh prayer, 
A nd throws her arms around him in despair: — 

" He has been wronged ! Until you show that his was 
not true love for me, by proving that he gave affection 
to some other woman as his wife, consider I am still 
the wife of Robert Kent." 

Walton rises from the place he lay, 

And wild with his pain, manages to say: — 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 85 

u And please consider i" am Robert Kent ! And that you 
have decided ' merely passionate affection for one 
woman constitutes true love.' — I can give proof that 
I am ' Robert Olney Kent,' and that that man's true 
legal name is not. Hence by this paper, you have 
married me." 

Margaret views the paper with high scorn, 

While Gladys to the side of Kent is borne:— 
" ' What constitutes a marriage ? Verbal laws ? ' " 

She asks Walton: continuing as she draws 

Kent closer to her side with ebbing life: — 

" This child is witness that we two are man and wife." 



ACT V 

We visit Margaret's Country Home again. 
Her once aesthetic tastes have grown too plain. 
The walls about the room are nearly bare; 
She now lies sick in bed '?ieath Gladys' care. 
Miss Longstaffe enters with her face more grim, 
And out of breath exclaims: — 

" I have found him ! " 

" Found whom ? " 

" The man who loved and then deserted you." 

" Found Dr. Walton ? " 

" I also have found it ! " 

" Found what ? " . 

"The proof that Robert Kent divorced himself from you 

by giving his affection to another woman as his wife. 

I will bring Dr. Walton and the proof to you." 

She leaves, and through an open door 
Dr. Walton stands before: — 
11 I've come, never, never to leave you again, if you will 
let me stay ! " 
And they embrace. — Weakness seems to prevent her 
From answering him, — but she saio Charlton enter: — 

" Oh, Roger Charlton, I've forgotten you ! " 

She exclaims it with closed eyes. 
Pale Charlton sadly replies: — 

" We sometimes disremember, but we never do forget." 

Miss Longstaffe enters, bringing after her, 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 87 

Florence and Mrs. Townsend — things which were. — 
Charlton speaks with humbled head, 
Wishing that he coidd be dead: — 

" While your arms hold him to your breast, my arms 
are impotent, and while the lips of Mrs. Townsend 
denounce me, my own lips will be dumb. Clasp on, 
and I will turn my eyes away ; speak on, and I'll be 
deaf to what you say." 

Mrs. T still plays the hypocrite: — 

" My lips are dumb when they would denounce you." 

Walton says aside, that none hear it: — 

" (Oh, Margaret, you are so homely now ! ) " 

And fascinated by a thing of beauty, 
Addresses Florence as a courteous duty. 
Charlton, at the quickly changed aspects, 
Addresses Margaret as his love directs: — 

" Then my own lips can speak, since that man has 
spurned you. Margaret, when I had seen the 
scoundrel, Robert Kent, in sporting clubs, making a 
toy of that which should have bought you bread, 
and when his selfish appetites had been appeased, 
returning to your sleepless couch a gluttonous beast: 
when I knew such had been your married life with 
him and would still be if he returned to you from 
South America, I interposed my true love 'tween you 
and that beastly man, although the murder vomited 
his filthy life upon my soul. I never knew the details 
of his death, and yet I could tell what would deafen 
you to hear. I took the life of Robert Kent into my 
hands because I wished to gain your happiness, but 
now, to gain my happiness, I must take mine, and go 
for Judgment to the God of each." 
At ivhich he draws out a revolver: — 



88 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

" You didn't kill him, Charlton ! Stop ! " 

Miss Longstaffe has fired a " dissolve}'." 

Charlton gives her an astonished look; 

Florence gave some cue which Walton took: — 
11 Let's have some explanations ! This lovely woman 
will tell who she is." 

Florence sweetly above Margaret stands: — 

" I am till death the wife of Robert Kent." 

And, to Walton a marriage paper hands. 
On Mrs. Townsend Walton s eye is bent 
As he exclaims, — 

" And I am Robert Kent ! " 

To Florence he extends a hand less arm, — 

Embracing her ; which does material harm 

To Mrs. Townsend" s scheme, since her hard strife 

Had been to gain him Margaret for a wife, 

And armed with proof for that she had here come: — 

But now concludes; — 

" And I to lies am dumb." 

Miss Longstaffe takes down, framed, from of the wall, 
Poor Margaret's marriage paper, — with the call of— 

" Robert Olney Kent, I charge you, sir, with bigamy." 

Florence quickly writhes from out his arms; 

But Margaret tries to quiet his alarms 

By pointing at Gladys: — 
" No, I am not your wife." 
" Because you're not my father, sir." 

Tin* fife-like voice supports her mothers tones. 
Addressing Florence, — Margaret he disowns: — 

" I never loved that woman as my wife." 

And Margaret falls back with no seeming life. 
Charlton 8 fist in Walton s face is sent: — 

" I thought that I had killed you, Robert Kent ! " 

With which, to Margaret is quickly said, 
As with an effort she sits up in bed: — 

" What power chained you to Robert Kent for life ? " 



THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 89 

"The thought that parents should be man and wife." 

And having weakly spoken; .she/alls back 

With her fare drawn "as though the flesh mould crack." 
" You have been his wife in this world, but in the next — " 

Charlton pauses— Margaret tries t > sped:: is vexed. 
u Her tongue is paralyzed ! " 

Miss Longstqffe cries; 

And all but Charlton stand in dumb surprise. 

lie hands to her a pencil and a paper, 

And 'prickly asks — as flickers her life's taper; — 

iC You have been his wife in this world, but in the next? — " 

And Margaret writes— while Charlton seems unsexed: — 

" ' My lover will be he who had the truest love.' " 

He reads, while Margaret is withdrawing from life's glove — 
• l Stand back ! " (As Miss Longstaffe upon him bears: — ) 
11 Let no one meddle with my soul's affairs." 

To Margaret then: — 

" What constitutes true love?" 

And Margaret, struggling, tries to speak, — 
Then write, — then calmly drops life's glove. 
Bid crazy Charlton still repeats: — 

" What Constitutes True Love ? " 



Charlton, waking from his sleep 
Whereof we this record keep — 

Where this Dream had left him maddened- 
Since the Dream's recorded ending 



90 THE TRAGEDY OF ERRORS 

O'er a poem has been bending; 

And, Header, you will be saddened 
With its contents: but, imploring 
Pardon for my faults ignoring, — 

/ end my work with a sigh. 
- — Let ivho can do better try. 



Qt^Coo^^^- 



(IN PREPARA TION) 



The Tragedy of Errors 



A POEM 



By CHARLTOTST 



Being a continuation in the next world of the Dream 

so poorly portrayed by Julius in the Dramatic 

Poem of the same title 



i IRRARY OF CONGRESS 

iiiiMiMii 

016 102 646 3 1 



